TwinSpace

Revolution in automotive software development using green coding and digital twins –

economy and ecology in perfect harmony.

Funding Call

“GreenTech Innovationswettbewerb”
Digitale Technologien als Schlüssel für die ökologische
Transformation der Wirtschaft

Funding Volume

3.966.000,77 €
for the period: 01.05.2023 – 30.04.2026

Project Overview

Traditionally, the resource optimisation of non-functional properties of software such as runtime, memory requirements and, above all, energy has been neglected in development, as the speed of hardware doubles every two years. This pioneering initiative is addressing this and aims to optimise (safety-relevant) software for embedded systems with regard to resource requirements (e.g. CPU, GPU, runtime) by mapping the application specification to a twin space (black box shells) that abstracts the multitude of implementation options for components in the design space. For this purpose, automated reverse engineering of compiled code is being pursued. This code is then simulated on various emulated hardware platforms (HW) and the resource requirements are measured. As soon as a suitable hardware platform has been selected, the code is recompiled for the respective hardware platform. By abstracting from specific functional software and introducing software twins, it is possible to analyse and map software components on real or virtual hardware at an early stage. This means that the objective of reducing energy consumption can be incorporated into the development process right from the start. What’s great about this is that reverse engineering poses no cyber risk, as only non-functional aspects are transferred. Although initially focused on the automotive industry, TwinSpace has the potential to serve as a cross-industry role model and generate sustainable spillover effects throughout the entire technology sector. With TwinSpace, we are facing a future where digital technology and environmental responsibility go hand in hand. Stay informed and connected: LinkedIn

TwinSpace

Motivation

TwinSpace is driven by a clear motivation that has often been neglected in traditional software development. Until now, non-functional properties of software – such as runtime, memory requirements, and especially energy efficiency – have often been disregarded, given that hardware performance tends to double every two years. However, increased computing power also leads to higher energy consumption. In light of the sustainability challenges in digitalization, the need to make energy efficiency and resource optimisation of software for embedded systems a central goal has been recognised.

Statement on the Funding Programme

By developing resource-optimized and energy-efficient software for embedded systems, TwinSpace will contribute to addressing the growing sustainability challenges in digital technology, while optimizing both economic and ecological aspects. Using the developed, tested, and applied green coding development tool with optimized resource management, digital technologies are intended to support the economic transformation towards greater sustainability, climate and environmental protection. In doing so, the digital technologies employed must themselves be designed to be resource-efficient to minimize the resource consumption induced by digitalization.

Objective

TwinSpace aims to reduce the resource consumption of digital technologies, minimize energy usage, and lower CO₂ emissions. To achieve this, software-related issues will be addressed by abstracting from specific software implementations using virtual software twins, thereby optimizing the energy consumption of embedded software. This approach enables the consideration of energy efficiency from the very beginning and allows for early assessments of system requirements, which in turn serve as a basis for comprehensive optimizations.

Expected Impact

The project will revolutionise software development by spreading the ecological and economic benefits of digital technology. Germany will benefit from the results, as it will expand its state-of-the-art in science and technology with regard to embedded software in the automotive sector which can be transferred to other sectors and application domains. This will strengthen Germany’s competitiveness as a centre of technology.

Intended Results

The primary goal of the project is to maximise the benefits of digital technologies in terms of their economic and ecological potential. 

  • Development of the green coding development tool “TwinSpace” for more efficient and energy-saving software development. 
  • Testing and application of the developments in the automotive industry and later in other sectors. 
  • Reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions through more efficient software and hardware. 
  • Provision of a methodology and software for developers of embedded systems to analyse resource requirements at an early stage and select the appropriate hardware platform. 

Vision

The overarching vision is to create a world in which technological progress and environmental protection go hand in hand. Software that is developed intentionally and efficiently can enable significant energy and cost savings. With new approaches such as “green coding mechanisms” and “digital twins”, a profound change in the way software for embedded systems is developed is being pursued. This could have a lasting impact on the industry and serve as a model for other sectors and global applications.

Consortium

Within the project, a total of 8 partners and 3 associated companies are working closely together. Research and development are carried out by the University of Rostock, the University of Lübeck and the University of Augsburg, as well as by the two companies emmtrix and AbsInt. In addition, the solution providers e:fs, TENSOR, NXP (associated) and SYSGO (associated) contribute significantly to the development of the project results. Cariad acts as an application partner, ensuring that the results are utilised in the automotive industry and commissioning Clausthal University of Technology to test the results.

Blog

Extracting and Generating Resource Twins

In previous blog posts, we had given the ideas and goals of the TwinSpace project where we presented the technical building blocks: the LPDL as a modelling language and the extractors and generators to obtain LPDL models and resource twins. The LPDL allows to specify the non-functional properties of software components and software systems (e.g., the execution time, the number and kinds of used operations, memory usage, communication behaviour, …) without disclosing concrete algorithms. These models can either be automatically extracted from existing software components or manually written by the engineers. The twin generators use the information from the LPDL models to produce suitable resource twins which can then be used to assess different hardware platforms or compilers.

Today, we want to show the conversion of a software component to a resource twin with the help of a small example. Later blog posts will describe our work on the system level and on metrics for the assessment of the twins as well as the embedding into an automotive development process.

Extractors: From Program to LPDL

This article introduces the various TwinSpace extractors used to generate load profiles for programs. The extractors work on different abstraction levels, such as source code, object files, and trace data, each offering specific advantages in analyzing non-functional properties like energy consumption and runtime. Analysis at the source code level allows consideration of high-level language features, while object files provide a more accurate estimate of the compiled program. Hardware-related analysis using trace data ultimately offers the highest accuracy. By combining these approaches, a comprehensive picture of a program’s non-functional properties can be obtained, which is crucial for planning and efficiency improvement in various applications.

Ready for the future: A new paradigm of continuous resource optimization via TwinSpace

Today, industrial products are often based on a rapid series of innovations that frequently make hardware obsolete prematurely, even though the real added value for the customer results almost exclusively from software innovations. Hardware that would often remain technically functional for years is being prematurely phased out due to inefficient software development and the pressure to bring new products to market. The solution to this problem lies in optimizing the software itself so that the hardware can be used for as long as possible. This is where the TwinSpace approach comes in, using the Load Profile Description Language (LPDL) to enable continuous resource optimization integrated into the development process, which minimizes the software’s footprint.

LPDL: A customised language to document load profiles

Digital twins not only reflect the current state, but also anticipate future developments, simulate scenarios and offer valuable insights for the optimisation of real development processes. In order to design these complex digital models efficiently and precisely, however, we need powerful tools that fulfil the special requirements of these virtual worlds. This is precisely where the ‘Load Profile Description Language’, or LPDL for short, developed in TwinSpace comes in.

Project Partner

Associated Partner

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Contact

  • Address

Dr.-Ludwig-Kraus-Str. 6, 

85080 Gaimersheim

Deutschland

Manuel Schmidt (CIT)

Administrative Project Manager

schmidt@consider-it.de

Dr.-Ing. Konrad Häublein (E:FS)

Technical Project Manager

konrad.haeublein@efs-techhub.com