A Synthesis-Based Stateful Approach for Guiding Design Thinking in Embedded System Development

Embedded systems have attracted more attention and have become more critical due to the recent computer technology advancements and applications in various areas, such as healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing. Traditional software design approaches and the finite state machine cannot provide sufficient support due to two major reasons: the increasing need for more functions in designing an embedded system and sequential controls in the implementation. This deficiency particularly discourages inexperienced engineers who use conventional methods to design embedded software. Hence, we proposed a design method, the Synthesis-Based Stateful Software Design Approach (SSSDA), which synthesizes two existing methods, the Synthesis-Based Software Design Framework (SSDF) and Process and Artifact State Transition Abstraction (PASTA), to remedy the drawback of conventional methods. To show how to conduct our proposed design approach and investigate how it supports embedded system design, we studied an industrial project developed by a sophomore student team. Our results showed that our proposed approach could significantly help students lay out modules, improve testability, and reduce defects.