Real time edge detection is required in many embedded systems where execution speed is critical. This task is intensely computational but highly parallelizable and, in order to satisfy the real-time requirements, using multiprocessor-based embedded systems can be a viable solution. In this paper we propose a MPSoC hardware and software co-design method for real-time Sobel edge detection using FPGA and IP blocks. The experiments we performed show a speed-up of 1.71 in the case of a multiprocessor system with two processors and a speed-up of 3.48 in the case of a multiprocessor system with four processing cores, versus a single processor system.