Towards Specifying Swarm-based Systems Using Categorical Modeling Language: A Case Study

One of the solutions to the software complexity crisis of this era is the proposition of self-managing systems like autonomous and autonomic systems. The idea has gained wide acceptance in the IT industry but it has also introduced the challenge of specification and development of such systems. Swarm intelligence is finding its applications in research and design of self-managing systems because of the coincidental resemblance between the two domains. However, specification of a swarm-based self-managing system is faced with the difficulty of specifying the complex evolving behavior. This thesis presents an adaptation of a mathematical technique known as Category Theory to serve as a ‘reasoning and modeling’ paradigm for specifying high-level behavioral patterns of a swarm-based self-managing systems. The crux of this paradigm is the formal categorical modeling language (CML). CML syntax and semantics have been defined using an EBNF-based context-free grammar. The language helps to generate a formal specification of different scenarios/behavioral patterns of a swarm-based system. Moreover, a prototype tool has been implemented as part of this research work to serve as a modeling tool based on CML. In this thesis, NASA’s ANTS-based Prospecting Asteroid Mission (PAM) serves as a case study to analyze the applicability and usability of CML as a formal method of choice

Tools for producing formal specifications : a view of current architectures and future directions

During the last decade, one important contribution towards requirements engineering has been the advent of formal specification languages. They offer a well-defined notation that can improve consistency and avoid ambiguity in specifications. However, the process of obtaining formal specifications that are consistent with the requirements is itself a difficult activity. Hence various researchers are developing systems that aid the transition from informal to formal specifications. The kind of problems tackled and the contributions made by these proposed systems are very diverse. This paper brings these studies together to provide a vision for future architectures that aim to aid the transition from informal to formal specifications. The new architecture, which is based on the strengths of existing studies, tackles a number of key issues in requirements engineering such as identifying ambiguities, incompleteness, and reusability. The paper concludes with a discussion of the research problems that need to be addressed in order to realise the proposed architecture

A grammatical specification of human-computer dialogue

The Seeheim Model of human-computer interaction partitions an interactive application into a user-interface, a dialogue controller and the application itself. One of the formal techniques of implementing the dialogue controller is based on context-free grammars and automata. In this work, we modify an off-the-shelf compiler generator (YACC) to generate the dialogue controller. The dialogue controller is then integrated into the popular X-window system, to create an interactive-application generator. The actions of the user drive the automaton, which in turn controls the application

The ModelCC Model-Driven Parser Generator

Syntax-directed translation tools require the specification of a language by means of a formal grammar. This grammar must conform to the specific requirements of the parser generator to be used. This grammar is then annotated with semantic actions for the resulting system to perform its desired function. In this paper, we introduce ModelCC, a model-based parser generator that decouples language specification from language processing, avoiding some of the problems caused by grammar-driven parser generators. ModelCC receives a conceptual model as input, along with constraints that annotate it. It is then able to create a parser for the desired textual syntax and the generated parser fully automates the instantiation of the language conceptual model. ModelCC also includes a reference resolution mechanism so that ModelCC is able to instantiate abstract syntax graphs, rather than mere abstract syntax trees.Comment: In Proceedings PROLE 2014, arXiv:1501.0169

Metamodel Instance Generation: A systematic literature review

Modelling and thus metamodelling have become increasingly important in Software Engineering through the use of Model Driven Engineering. In this paper we present a systematic literature review of instance generation techniques for metamodels, i.e. the process of automatically generating models from a given metamodel. We start by presenting a set of research questions that our review is intended to answer. We then identify the main topics that are related to metamodel instance generation techniques, and use these to initiate our literature search. This search resulted in the identification of 34 key papers in the area, and each of these is reviewed here and discussed in detail. The outcome is that we are able to identify a knowledge gap in this field, and we offer suggestions as to some potential directions for future research.Comment: 25 page