Windows NT as a Platform for a Real-Time Control System: A Case Study. Design ofa Control System Using Visual C++ for the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle MacAROV

摘要

The 32-bit operating system Windows NT can be used as a platform for a soft real-time control system. Earlier, it has been difficult, without additional products, to make real-time applications under MS DOS and Windows 3.1, but the architecture of Windows NT is completely new. NT supports both processes and threads (at the application level), both of which may be individually prioritized and globally scheduled. Win32, the programming interface of Windows NT, provides a great many new functions for real-time systems design, and this report will try to bring out the most important ones. A closer look at multithreading and the mechanisms for thread scheduling is also performed. To verify the usability of Windows NT in real-time systems, a case study has been performed. A Windows based real-time control system for the unmanned underwater vehicle MacAROV was designed. For developing the control system, Visual C++ (Version 1.1) for Windows NT was used. This is a powerful tool for Windows programming, but the included class library (MFC) does not support multithreading in this version. The results from the simulator tests and field trials with the real vehicle showed that Windows NT fulfills the real-time requirements.