Formal Model Engineering for Embedded Systems Using Real-Time Maude

This paper motivates why Real-Time Maude should be well suited to provide a formal semantics and formal analysis capabilities to modeling languages for embedded systems. One can then use the code generation facilities of the tools for the modeling languages to automatically synthesize Real-Time Maude verification models from design models, enabling a formal model engineering process that combines the convenience of modeling using an informal but intuitive modeling language with formal verification. We give a brief overview six fairly different modeling formalisms for which Real-Time Maude has provided the formal semantics and (possibly) formal analysis. These models include behavioral subsets of the avionics modeling standard AADL, Ptolemy II discrete-event models, two EMF-based timed model transformation systems, and a modeling language for handset software.Comment: In Proceedings AMMSE 2011, arXiv:1106.596

A Model-based transformation process to validate and implement high-integrity systems

Despite numerous advances, building High-Integrity Embedded systems remains a complex task. They come with strong requirements to ensure safety, schedulability or security properties; one needs to combine multiple analysis to validate each of them. Model-Based Engineering is an accepted solution to address such complexity: analytical models are derived from an abstraction of the system to be built. Yet, ensuring that all abstractions are semantically consistent, remains an issue, e.g. when performing model checking for assessing safety, and then for schedulability using timed automata, and then when generating code. Complexity stems from the high-level view of the model compared to the low-level mechanisms used. In this paper, we present our approach based on AADL and its behavioral annex to refine iteratively an architecture description. Both application and runtime components are transformed into basic AADL constructs which have a strict counterpart in classical programming languages or patterns for verification. We detail the benefits of this process to enhance analysis and code generation. This work has been integrated to the AADL-tool support OSATE2

Visual Specification Patterns

Visual modelling notations such as constraint diagrams can be used for the behavioural specifications of software components. This includes specifying invariants on classes or types and preconditions and postconditions of operations. However, one current problem in specifying components comes from the fact that editing constraints manually is time consuming and error prone and so we may adopt a pattern-based approach to alleviate this problem. One way to simplify the definition of constraints is to identify and capture those recurring constraints in the form of visual specification patterns. Such patterns would facilitate the automatic generation of diagrammatic constraints. This paper identifies some specification patterns that frequently occur when specifying software components and provides a diagrammatic representation of these patterns. This will form the basis of a library of specification patterns that could be used in the context of tools. We also show how such patterns can be combined in order to specify more complex constraints

Automated verification of model transformations based on visual contracts

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10515-012-0102-yModel-Driven Engineering promotes the use of models to conduct the different phases of the software development. In this way, models are transformed between different languages and notations until code is generated for the final application. Hence, the construction of correct Model-to-Model (M2M) transformations becomes a crucial aspect in this approach. Even though many languages and tools have been proposed to build and execute M2M transformations, there is scarce support to specify correctness requirements for such transformations in an implementation-independent way, i.e., irrespective of the actual transformation language used. In this paper we fill this gap by proposing a declarative language for the specification of visual contracts, enabling the verification of transformations defined with any transformation language. The verification is performed by compiling the contracts into QVT to detect disconformities of transformation results with respect to the contracts. As a proof of concept, we also report on a graphical modeling environment for the specification of contracts, and on its use for the verification of transformations in several case studies.This work has been funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under grant P21374-N13, the Spanish Ministry of Science under grants TIN2008-02081 and TIN2011-24139, and the R&D programme of the Madrid Region under project S2009/TIC-1650

Early aspects: aspect-oriented requirements engineering and architecture design

This paper reports on the third Early Aspects: Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering and Architecture Design Workshop, which has been held in Lancaster, UK, on March 21, 2004. The workshop included a presentation session and working sessions in which the particular topics on early aspects were discussed. The primary goal of the workshop was to focus on challenges to defining methodical software development processes for aspects from early on in the software life cycle and explore the potential of proposed methods and techniques to scale up to industrial applications

A Static Verification Framework for Secure Peer-to-Peer Applications

In this paper we present a static verification framework to support the design and verification of secure peer-to-peer applications. The framework supports the specification, modeling, and analysis of security aspects together with the general characteristics of the system, during early stages of the development life-cycle. The approach avoids security issues to be taken into consideration as a separate layer that is added to the system as an afterthought by the use of security protocols. The main functionality supported by the framework are concerned with the modeling of the system together with its security aspects by using an extension of UML, modeling of abuse cases to represent scenarios of attackers and assist with the identification of properties to be verified, specification of properties to be verified in a graphical template language, verification of the models against the properties, and visualization of the results of the verification process

Tool Paper: A Lightweight Formal Encoding of a Constraint Language for DSMLs

International audienceDomain Specific Modeling Languages (dsmls) plays a key role in the development of Safety Critical Systems to model system requirements and implementation. They often need to integrate property and query sub-languages. As a standardized modeling language, ocl can play a key role in their definition as they can rely both on its concepts and textual syntax which are well known in the Model Driven Engineering community. For example, most dsmls are defined using mof for their abstract syntax and ocl for their static semantics as a metamodeling dsml. OCLinEcore in the Eclipse platform is an example of such a metamodeling dsml integrating ocl as a language component in order to benefit from its property and query facilities. dsmls for Safety Critical Systems usually provide formal model verification activities for checking models completeness or consistency, and implementation correctness with respect to requirements. This contribution describes a framework to ease the definition of such formal verification tools by relying on a common translation from a subset of ocl to the Why3 verification toolset. This subset was selected to ease efficient automated verification. This framework is illustrated using a block specification language for data flow languages where a subset of ocl is used as a component language

Automatic generation of software applications: a platform-based MDA approach

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) allows moving the software development from the time consuming and error-prone level of writing program code to the next higher level of modeling. In order to gain benefit from this innovative technology, it is necessary to satisfy two requirements. These are first, the creation of compact, complete and correct platform independent models (PIM) and second, the development of a flexible and extensible model transformation framework taking into account frequent changes of the target platform. In this thesis a platform-based methodology is developed to create PIM by abstracting common modeling elements into a platform independent modeling library called Design Platform Model (DPM). The DPM contains OCL-based types for modeling primitive and collection types, a platform independent GUI toolkit as well as other common modeling elements, such as those for IO-operations. Furthermore, a DPM profile containing diverse domain specific and design pattern-based stereotypes is also developed to create PIM with high-level semantics. The behavior in PIM is specified using an OCL-like action language called eXecutable OCL (XOCL), which is also developed in this thesis. For model transformation, the model compiler MOCCA is developed based on a flexible and extensible architecture. The model mapper components in the current version of MOCCA are able to map desktop applications onto JSE platform; the both business object layer and persistence layer of a three-layered enterprise applications onto JEE platform and SAP ABAP platform. The entire model transformation process is finished with complete code generation

Fujaba days 2009 : proceedings of the 7th international Fujaba days, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, November 16-17, 2009

Fujaba is an Open Source UML CASE tool project started at the software engineering group of Paderborn University in 1997. In 2002 Fujaba has been redesigned and became the Fujaba Tool Suite with a plug-in architecture allowing developers to add functionality easily while retaining full control over their contributions. Multiple Application Domains Fujaba followed the model-driven development philosophy right from its beginning in 1997. At the early days, Fujaba had a special focus on code generation from UML diagrams resulting in a visual programming language with a special emphasis on object structure manipulating rules. Today, at least six rather independent tool versions are under development in Paderborn, Kassel, and Darmstadt for supporting (1) reengineering, (2) embedded real-time systems, (3) education, (4) specification of distributed control systems, (5) integration with the ECLIPSE platform, and (6) MOF-based integration of system (re-) engineering tools. International Community According to our knowledge, quite a number of research groups have also chosen Fujaba as a platform for UML and MDA related research activities. In addition, quite a number of Fujaba users send requests for more functionality and extensions. Therefore, the 7th International Fujaba Days aimed at bringing together Fujaba developers and Fujaba users from all over the world to present their ideas and projects and to discuss them with each other and with the Fujaba core development team