The Open Source Automation Development Lab eG (OSADL) is a German organization intended to promote and coordinate the development of

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

software for the

machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, Boring (manufacturing), boring, grinding (abrasive cutting), grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some s ...

, and

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

industry. , it has more than 40 member companies from around the world, including machine manufacturers, manufacturers of automation hardware and software,

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

companies, user associations and open source software service providers. Membership fees are used for the most part to fund development of the software. OSADL was founded on December 8, 2005. It was assigned the cooperative register number 440085 at the Stuttgart, Germany, District Court in August 2006. OSADL is a member of OPC Foundation which governs the OPC UA industrial automation standard, in which the lab is also involved.

Preamble of the articles of incorporation of the cooperative

"The automation industry and its suppliers are profiting greatly from Open Source operating systems such as Linux since they guarantee long production cycles, rapid troubleshooting and the independence of individual software manufacturers. However, this branch requires specific expansions of the operating system such as real-time capabilities, the compatibility with these expansions must be certifiable, and standardized software interfaces must be available. The development of these requirements is the goal of the Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL)."

Working groups and projects

Over time a number of working groups has been established and projects participated in, this lists some of the more prominent: * Ingo Molnár's and Thomas Gleixner's

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

Real-time Preempt Patches (aka PREEMPT_RT) *

Kernel-based Virtual Machine Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a free and open-source virtualization module in the Linux kernel that allows the Kernel (operating system), kernel to function as a hypervisor. It was merged into the Mainline Linux, mainline Linux kernel i ...

and Real-time Preempt Patches * Critical Safety Linux * Universal industrial I/O framework * Upstream submission of kernel components to Mainline Linux * Conformance tests of board support packages * Tools and libraries to facilitate the

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

to Linux *

Quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to assure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

of the Linux kernel and its real-time capabilities in a "QA Farm" * License Compliance Audit to help companies follow the obligations of Open Source licenses * Adding TSN and publish/subscribe capabilities to open62541 (implements OPC UA industrial automation)

Feedback

The relevance of the

operating system for

embedded system An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...

s and OSADL's role to foster its real-time capabilities are recognized.Linux: The Operating System for Embedded Design, Sanjay Challa, RTC Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 12, Dec. 2014
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References

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External links

Official website

Article in "Boards & Solutions", 03/2007

Article in "Industrial Ethernet Book", 05/2009

Article in "Boards & Solutions", 06/2011
Free and open-source software organizations Organizations established in 2005