Beyond Simulation: Computer Aided Control System Design Using Equation-Based Object Oriented Modelling for the Next Decade

After 20 years since their birth, equation-oriented and object-oriented modelling techniques and tools are now mature, as far as solving simulation problems is concerned. Conversely, there is still much to be done in order to provide more direct support for the design of advanced, model-based control systems, starting from object-oriented plant models. Following a brief review of the current state of the art in this field, the paper presents some proposals for future developments: open model exchange formats, automatic model-order reduction techniques, automatic derivation of simplified transfer functions, automatic derivation of LFT models, automatic generation of inverse models for robotic systems, and support for nonlinear model predictive control

EDROOM: a free tool for the UML2 component based design and automatic code generation of tiny embedded real time system

International audienceThe use of tiny real time kernels to develop embedded systems is broadly extended. They offer basic services with small overhead footprints in the final product. Usually, these kind of kernels are compliant with the POSIX 1003.13 specification. The use of graphical modelling and automatic code generation tools for developing these kind of small software embedded system if often not considered for several reasons: they are expensive, the learning curve to obtain benefits is often large and finally the generated code usually does not fit well with the platform or exceed the desired size. In this paper we present the adaptation of a free tool, known as EDROOM, to develop this kind of real time software system. EDROOM is inspired on the ROOM modelling language and provides graphical modelling and automatic Embedded C++ code generation. EDROOM is compliant with the new UML2 graphical notation for component based system design and hierarchical behaviour. The new version of EDROOM is a cross development multiplatform generation tool and includes facilities for static control of all resources in order to completely avoid the use of dynamic memory. Our tool has been used in the software development of a small satellite (NANOSAT-01) which is fully functional nowadays. The tool is free distributed in conjunction with a group of code test bench that can be used to validate any port to another architecture

AToM3: A Tool for Multi-formalism and Meta-modelling

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45923-5_12Proceedings of 5th International Conference, FASE 2002 Held as Part of the Joint European Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2002 Grenoble, France, April 8–12, 2002This article introduces the combined use of multi-formalism modelling and meta-modelling to facilitate computer assisted modelling of complex systems. The approach allows one to model different parts of a system using different formalisms. Models can be automatically converted between formalisms thanks to information found in a Formalism Transformation Graph (FTG), proposed by the authors. To aid in the automatic generation of multi-formalism modelling tools, formalisms are modelled in their own right (at a meta-level) within an appropriate formalism. This has been implemented in the interactive tool AToM3. This tool is used to describe formalisms commonly used in the simulation of dynamical systems, as well as to generate custom tools to process (create, edit, transform, simulate, optimise, ...) models expressed in the corresponding formalism. AToM3 relies on graph rewriting techniques and graph grammars to perform the transformations between formalisms as well as for other tasks, such as code generation and operational semantics specification.This paper has been partially sponsored by the Spanish Interdepartmental Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), project number TEL1999-0181. Prof.Vangheluwe gratefully acknowledges partial support for this work by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Individual Research Grant

A Test Case Generation Method for Workflow Systems Based on I/O_WF_Net

At present, the testing of the workflow system is mainly based on manual testing, and the functions of only some tools are relatively simple. The design of test cases mainly depends on the experience of testers, which makes the lack of test coverage. In this paper, a test case generation method based on the I/O_WF_Net model is proposed. A test case generation algorithm that satisfies the process branch coverage criterion is designed, which solves the problem of automatic test case generation for workflow systems. The algorithm divides the model according to "split-merge pairs" to generate a decomposition tree of the model, and then traverses the tree to generate test cases. A workflow system modelling and test case generation tool are designed and implemented, and an actual workflow system is used as the experimental object to verify the effectiveness of the method

Software Tool for Acausal Physical Modelling and Simulation

Modelling and simulation are key tools for analysis and design of systems and processes from almost any scientific or engineering discipline. Models of complex systems are typically built on acausal Differential-Algebraic Equations (DAE) and discrete events using Object-Oriented Modelling (OOM) languages, and some of their key concepts can be explained as symmetries. To obtain a computer executable version from the original model, several algorithms, based on bipartite symmetric graphs, must be applied for automatic equation generation, removing alias equations, computational causality assignment, equation sorting, discrete-event processing or index reduction. In this paper, an open source tool according to OOM paradigm and developed in MATLAB is introduced. It implements such algorithms adding an educational perspective about how they work, since the step by step results obtained after processing the model equations can be shown. The tool also allows to create models using its own OOM language and to simulate the final executable equation set. It was used by students in a modelling and simulation course of the Automatic Control and Industrial Electronics Engineering degree, showing a significant improvement in their understanding and learning of the abovementioned topics after their assessment

Sensitivity analysis of surface runoff generation for pluvial urban flooding

Significant advances have been made in recent times in the domain of integrated hydraulic modelling of urban flooding. Development of a physically based model for dual drainage concept, in which urban surface is treated as a network of open channels and ponds (major system) connected to the sewer network (minor system), has been a step forward (Boonyaaroonnet et al. 2006). However, generation of reasonably realistic surface network is the main concern in this methodology (Djordjevic et al. 2005). This paper presents the results obtained by new developed tools (Boonya-aroonnet et al. 2007) for enhancing the potential of 1D/1D modelling by more accurate GIS-based automatic generation of surface network features. The application of these tools to a real life case study is discussed. Simplification of high resolution of LiDAR Digital Terrain Model (DTM) by re-sampling original 1x1m grid to larger sizes is necessary and sensitivity is analysed. Number of ponds removed and cumulative and discrete volume loss charts were generated and used to determine the suitable threshold values for removal of small ponds. In generating the pathways cross-section geometry, multi-criteria optimization technique was deployed to study the sensitivity of the input parameters on the geometries generated and appropriate parameter selection process

An IDE for the Design, Verification and Implementation of Security Protocols

Security protocols are critical components for the construction of secure and dependable distributed applications, but their implementation is challenging and error prone. Therefore, tools for formal modelling and analysis of security protocols can be potentially very useful to support software engineers. However, despite such tools having been available for a long time, their adoption outside the research community has been very limited. In fact, most practitioners find such applications too complex and hardly usable for their daily work. In this paper, we present an Integrated Development Environment for the design, verification and implementation of security protocols, aimed at lowering the adoption barrier of formal methods tools for security. In the spirit of Model Driven Development, the environment supports the user in the specification of the model using the simple and intuitive language AnB (and its extension AnBx). Moreover, it provides a push-button solution for the formal verification of the abstract and concrete models, and for the automatic generation of Java implementation. This Eclipse-based IDE leverages on existing languages and tools for the modelling and verification of security protocols, such as the AnBx Compiler and Code Generator, the model checker OFMC and the cryptographic protocol verifier ProVerif

Automatic generation of software design tools supporting semantics of modelling techniques

A generic visual language for diagram editing has been created which may be instantiated for a particular modelling technique. The instantiated visual language is used within the generated design tool. It provides non-obtrusive guidance observing the semantics of the underlying modelling technique. The tool user is allowed to produce intermediate inconsistent states to facilitate diagram editing.A prototype, comprising a compiler for the specification language, a multi-purpose graph tool and a configurable design tool was implemented to prove the feasibility of the complete approach.The prototype compiler generates executable code. The target of the compiler is the persistent programming language Napier88. The architecture of the compiler has been designed as two separate components: a front-end (the parser), and a back-end (the code generator). This approach gives independence from the target language.The code generator comprises a number of translation rules to produce Napier88 from a VC-t specification. The prototype compiler only incorporates some of the translation rules to demonstrate that executable Napier88 can be generated automatically. The remainder of the translation rules have been applied manually to produce Napier88, to demonstrate that the rules are correct.The multi-purpose graph tool, designated as GraphTool, can be used with the class of applications using graphs as their main data structures. It provides support for visual and interactive representations of an application. The application acts as a client of the Graph-Tool. A protocol has been defined to connect the client application to the GraphTool. Any number of visual representations can be associated with the application. Maps are used for this purpose: to change the representation it is only necessary to change the map. The GraphTool includes a constraint manager used to associate constraints with the representations objects and check these at run-time.The configurable design tool has been developed as a client for the GraphTool. It includes generic components for diagram editing and a drawing canvas. The functionality of the canvas is fully provided by the GraphTool

Towards Rapid Generation and Visualisation of Large 3D Urban Landscapes for Mobile Device Navigation

In this paper a procedural 3D modelling solution for mobile devices is presented based on scripting algorithms allowing for both the automatic and also semi-automatic creation of photorealistic quality virtual urban content. The combination of aerial images, GIS data, 2D ground maps and terrestrial photographs as input data coupled with a user-friendly customized interface permits the automatic and interactive generation of large-scale, accurate, georeferenced and fully-textured 3D virtual city content, content that can be specially optimized for use with mobile devices but also with navigational tasks in mind. Furthermore, a user-centred mobile virtual reality (VR) visualisation and interaction tool operating on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for pedestrian navigation is also discussed. Via this engine, the import and display of various navigational file formats (2D and 3D) is supported, including a comprehensive front-end user-friendly graphical user interface providing immersive virtual 3D navigation

Example-based generation of graphical modelling environments

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42061-5_7Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) present numerous benefits like powerful domain-specific primitives, an intuitive syntax for domain experts, and the possibility of advanced code generation for narrow domains. While a graphical syntax is sometimes desired for a DSL, constructing graphical modelling environments is a costly and highly technical task. This relegates domain experts to play a passive role in their development and hinders a wider adoption of graphical DSLs. Targeting a simpler DSL construction process, we propose an example based technique for the automatic generation of modelling environments for graphical DSLs. This way, starting from examples of the DSL likely provided by domain experts using drawing tools like yED, our system is able to synthesize a graphical modelling environment that mimics the syntax of the provided examples. This includes a meta-model for the abstract syntax of the DSL, and a graphical concrete syntax supporting spatial relationships like containment or attachment. The system is implemented as an Eclipse plugin, and we demonstrate its usage on a running example in the home networking domain.Work supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (TIN2014-52129-R), the Madrid Region (S2013/ICE-3006), and the EU Commission (FP7-ICT-2013-10, #611125)