Observability tool for edge IoT software

Percepio in Sweden has developed a tool to simplify the observability of edge IoT software during development and testing.

Percepio Detect provides real-time anomaly and brittleness risk detection along with debugging insights as part of a Continuous Integration and Continuous Testing (CI/CT) process for real time and edge software.

The rise of RTOS-based embedded systems has brought new complexities, including multithreading errors and sporadic stability issues. Traditional testing methods often fail to address these challenges effectively.

The Observability Driven Development (ODD) techniques used by Percepio Detect monitors runtime performance during testing to identify subtle “near misses” and other stability risks that might otherwise evade detection.  This can pick up anomalies such as timing violations and watchdog timer safety margin breaches, along with detection of software performance degradation.

It also automatically capture detailed diagnostic snapshots – complete with core dumps, call stacks, and system traces – on the first occurrence of issues, saving days or weeks of debugging time so that developers can analyze real forensic data from the system under actual execution and occurrence of anomalies.

The tool uses a centralized server dashboard and remote access so that teams can collaborate easily to resolve issues in real time, even on production hardware.

“This tool is like adding an advanced early warning system to your embedded software projects. Percepio Detect ensures developers catch anomalies before they escalate into costly problems,” said Johan Kraft, CTO and founder of Percepio AB. “For example, you would know when the watchdog timer has timed out, but more critically for quality assurance, you’d be notified if defined safety margins are breached.”

The tool integrates into local development environments without relying on cloud services to provide flexibility, data privacy and security.

By reducing debugging cycles and preventing reliability issues in production, Percepio Detect delivers substantial time and cost savings. It also helps companies meet emerging cybersecurity regulations that require continuous monitoring of system behavior and performance.

“While cloud-native companies focus on large-scale IT environments, we’re bringing deep observability to the edge, where real-time insights are critical,” said Andreas Lifvendahl, CEO of Percepio. “Percepio Detect demonstrates our commitment to enabling Observability Driven Development (ODD) for the embedded community, helping them achieve faster, more reliable development-and-test iterations and higher quality software.”

The tool works with Tracealyzer for visual debugging and analysis of diagnostic payloads, and can easily be extended with the DevAlert for device monitoring post-deployment, creating a comprehensive observability feedback loop for embedded systems.