Chapter 1: Welcome
Embedded Systems - Shape The World

Jonathan Valvano and Ramesh Yerraballi

 

Welcome to our course on Embedded Systems offered to you on the EdX MOOC platform. In this chapter we will introduce the course, who we are, our objectives in teaching this course in an online format, the equipment (software and hardware) you will need to perform the hands-on labs that the course entails. We will also show you a glimpse of the all the labs you will perform towards successful completion of the course and receiving certification.
NB: This e-book exists as a resource for the EdX course offering for Spring 2015. However, it can also be used as a standalone resource if you ignore references to the EdX course.

                  

 Video 1.0. Welcome to UT.6.01x Embedded Systems - Shape The World

 Video 1.1. Your Instructors (Jon Valvano and Ramesh Yerraballi)

 

1.0 Introduction

An embedded system combines mechanical, electrical, and chemical components along with a computer, hidden inside, to perform a single dedicated purpose. There are more computers on this planet than there are people, and most of these computers are single-chip microcontrollers that are the brains of an embedded system. Embedded systems are a ubiquitous component of our everyday lives. We interact with hundreds of tiny computers every day that are embedded into our houses, our cars, our bridges, our toys, and our work. As our world has become more complex, so have the capabilities of the microcontrollers embedded into our devices. Therefore the world needs a trained workforce to develop and manage products based on embedded microcontrollers.

1.0.1 Impact

The innovative aspect of this class is to effectively teach a course with a substantial lab component within the MOOC format. If MOOCs are truly going to transform the education, then they must be able to deliver laboratory classes. This offering will go a long way in unraveling the perceived complexities in delivering a laboratory experience to tens of thousands of students. If successful, the techniques developed in this class will significantly transform the MOOC environment. We believe effective education requires students to learn by doing. In the traditional academic setting this active learning is delivered in a lab format.  A number of important factors have combined that allow a lab class like this to be taught at this time. First, we have significant support from industrial partners ARM Inc and Texas Instruments. Second, the massive growth of embedded microcontrollers has made the availability of lost-cost development platforms feasible. Third, your instructors have the passion, patience, and experience of delivering quality lab experiences to large classes. Fourth, on-line tools now exist that allow students to interact and support each other.

The overall educational objective of this class is to allow students to discover how the computer interacts with its environment. It will provide hands-on experiences of how an embedded system could be used to solve problems. The focus of this introductory course will be understanding and analysis rather than design. It takes an effective approach to learning new techniques by doing them. We feel we have solved the dilemma in learning a laboratory-based topic like embedded systems where there is a tremendous volume of details that first must be learned before hardware and software systems can be designed.

1.0.2 Approach and Learning Philosophy

The approach taken in this course is to learn by doing in a bottom-up fashion. One of the advantages of a bottom-up approach to learning is that the student begins by mastering simple concepts. Once the student truly understands simple concepts, he or she can then embark on the creative process of design, which involves putting the pieces together to create a more complex system. True creativity is needed to solve complex problems using effective combinations of simple components. Embedded systems afford an effective platform to teach new engineers how to program for three reasons. First, there is no operating system. Thus, in a bottom-up fashion the student can see, write, and understand all software running on a system that actually does something. Second, embedded systems involve real input/output that is easy for the student to touch, hear, and see. Third, embedded systems are employed in many every-day products, motivating students to see firsthand, how engineering processes can be applied in the real world.

 Video 1.2. Learning Philosophy

1.0.3 Audience and Background

This course is intended for beginning college students with some knowledge of electricity as would have been taught in an introductory college physics class. Secondly, it is expected students will have some basic knowledge of programming and logic design. No specific language will be assumed as prior knowledge but this class could be taken as their second programming class.

 Video 1.3. Expectations: who and prerequisites

1.1 Structure and Objectives

The analog to digital converter (ADC) and digital to analog converter (DAC) are the chosen mechanism to bridge the computer and electrical worlds. Electrical engineering concepts include Ohms Law, LED voltage/current, resistance measurement, and motor control. Computer engineering concepts include I/O device drivers, debugging, stacks, FIFO queues, local variables and interrupts. The hardware construction is performed on a breadboard and debugged using a multimeter (students learn to measure voltage). Software is developed in C; all labs will be first simulated then run on the real microcontroller. Software debugging occurs during the simulation stage. Verification occurs in both stages.

The course has 11 labs and a final project. Each lab has a small and well-defined educational objective. Students begin by learning the fundamental concepts via lectures, interactive animations and readings. The second task is for students to observe an expert working through an example lab project (interactive tutorial where the students are required to follow along by building exactly what the instructor is building). Third, students are examined to make sure they understand the concepts by solving homework problems. Fourth, they are given a lab assignment where they must design hardware and software. Students connect circuits to their microcontroller board and write software to run on the board. The automatic grading system to verify specifications have been met. If the students are unsuccessful they will interact with their peers and be able to attempt the lab again.

1.1.1 Learning objectives:

Although the students are engaged with a fun and rewarding lab experience, the educational pedagogy is centered on fundamental learning objectives. After the successful conclusion of this class, students should be able to understand the basic components of a computer, write C language programs that perform I/O functions and implement simple data structures, manipulate numbers in multiple formats, and understand how software uses global memory to store permanent information and the stack to store temporary information. Our goal is for students to learn these concepts:

  1. Understanding how the computer stores and manipulates data,
  2. The understanding of embedded systems using modular design and abstraction,
  3. C programming: considering both function and style,
  4. The strategic use of memory,
  5. Debugging and verification using a simulator and on the real microcontroller
  6. How input/output using switches, LEDs, DACs, ADCs, motors, and serial ports,
  7. The implementation of an I/O driver, multithreaded programming,
  8. Understanding how local variables and parameters work,
  9. Analog to digital conversion (ADC), periodic sampling,
  10. Simple motors (e.g., open and closed-loop stepper motor control),
  11. Digital to analog conversion (DAC), used to make simple sounds,
  12. Design and implementation of elementary data structures.

1.2 Syllabus

The best way to understand what you will learn in this class is to list the labs you will complete and the example projects we will build. You will complete each lab first in simulation and then on the real board. For each module we will design a system and you will build and test a similar system as part of the lab for that module.

 Video 1.5. The Kit and Labs demonstrated

Following is the liast of all modules, the corresponding examples we will build in each and the relevant lab you will complete. Some of the modules do not have examples or labs.

1.2.1 Assessment

There will be five components of assessment. First, each module will have a quiz, which is a set of multiple choice/numerical questions that must be answered. If the student does not pass this quiz, then they can ask for help in the discussion forums and be allowed to retake the quiz. The second assessment involves solving the lab in simulation, and the third assessment is completing a physical lab. This means the student will wire up a simple circuit, write microcontroller code, and run the software on the real computer. Added to the student’s software will be a grading engine that can assess the quantitative performance of the system.  The labs result in a numerical score describing how many of the lab requirements the student successfully completed.

  1. 10% quizzes

  2. 45% labs in simulation

  3. 45% labs running on the real board

 Video 1.6. The role of simulation and working in teams

1.3 New for Spring 2015

We have made some enhancements to the content and made the certification process more flexible:

 Video 1.7. What is new in Spring 2015?

Creative Commons License
Embedded Systems - Shape the World by Jonathan Valvano and Ramesh Yerraballi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valvano/arm/outline1.htm.