Control of large-scale reconfigurable systems

The rise in embedded computing, sensing and actuation is leading to the development of larger scale distributed systems in a variety of domains. These systems can have many appealing qualities, such as modularity - which confers benefits during both design time and run time - and reconfigurability - the ability to change the system structure for customization purposes, for repairs or in response to environmental conditions or component failure. To reap these benefits, however, the software designed for such complex systems must address a number of challenges in dynamically coordinating and controlling the distributed components. This presentation covers some of the challenges, solutions and lessons learned during the design and implementation of a prototype highly modular, reconfigurable printing system at PARC.