A Modeling and Verification Approach to the Design of Distributed IMA Architectures Using TTEthernet

AbstractIntegrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architectures complemented with Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet) provides a strong platform to support the design and deployment of distributed avionic software systems. The complexity of the design and continuous integration of such systems can be managed using a model-based methodology. In this paper, we build on top of our extension of the AADL modeling language to model TTEthernet-based distributed systems and leverage model transformations to enable undertaking the verification of the system models produced with this methodology. In particular, we propose to transform the system models to a model suitable for a simulation with DEVS. We illustrate the proposed approach using an example of a navigation and guidance system and we use this example to show the verification of the contention-freedom property of TTEthernet schedule

Combining low-code programming and SDL-based modeling with snap! in the industry 4.0 context

© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.One of the main challenges to implement Industry 4.0 technologies within the industrial fabric is the lack of suitable concrete models and tools that demonstrate the potential benefits of embracing the digital transformation process. To overcome this challenge, over the past years, various Industry 4.0 automation and robotics providers have presented solutions based on visual block programming languages, which follow an emerging low-code approach to reduce the entry barriers of digital technologies. However, block-based low-code tools typically lack the formality introduced by specification languages, limiting their ability to model the industrial processes formally. Taking this into account, in this article, we present the combination of specification languages and visual block programming languages to enable industrial users to test and/or build their own Digital Twin models at a suitable abstraction level and with low entry barriers. In particular, we combine SDL and Snap! to create SDL4Snap!, an opensource and web-based tool that facilitates the implementation and validation of Digital Twin prototypes. Overall, the resulting tool has the potential to reduce the entry barrier to Digital Twins in small and medium enterprises, which are part of the late majority and laggard groups regarding the adoption of digital technologies in the context of Industry 4.0.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Adding Executable Context to Executable Architectures: Enabling an Executable Context Simulation Framework (ECSF)

A system that does not stand alone is represented by a complex entity of component combinations that interact with each other to execute a function. In today\u27s interconnected world, systems integrate with other systems - called a system-of-systems infrastructure: a network of interrelated systems that can often exhibit both predictable and unpredictable behavior. The current state-of-the-art evaluation process of these system-of-systems and their community of practitioners in the academic community are limited to static methods focused on defining who is doing what and where. However, to answer the questions of why and how a system operates within complex systems-of-systems interrelationships, a system\u27s architecture and context must be observed over time, its executable architecture, to discern effective predictable and unpredictable behavior. The objective of this research is to determine a method for evaluating a system\u27s executable architecture and assess the contribution and efficiency of the specified system before it is built. This research led to the development of concrete steps that synthesize the observance of the executable architecture, assessment recommendations provided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Code of Best Practice for Command and Control (C2) Assessment, and the metrics for operational efficiency provided by the Military Missions and Means Framework. Based on the research herein, this synthesis is designed to evaluate and assess system-of-systems architectures in their operational context to provide quantitative results

Integrating AADL and FMI to Extend Virtual Integration Capability

Virtual Integration Capability is paramount to perform early validation of Cyber Physical Systems. The objective is to guide the systems engineer so as to ensure that the system under design meets multiple criteria through high-fidelity simulation. In this paper, we present an integration scheme that leverages the FMI (Functional Mock-Up interface) standard and the AADL architecture description language. Their combination allows for validation of systems combining embedded platform captured by the AADL, and FMI components that represent physical elements, either mechanical parts, or the environment. We present one approach, and demonstrator case studies

Computer-aided design for building multipurpose routing processes in discrete event simulation models

Good domain-modeling enables an appropriate separation of concerns that improves quality properties in the simulation models, such as modifiability and maintainability. In this paper, the interplay of abstraction and concreteness in advancing the theory and practice of Modelling and Simulation is improved using the Model-Driven Engineering levels for building simulation models devoted to routing processes. The definition of this type of processes is detailed as a domain-model conceived as an abstraction defined in a graph model. Such abstraction turns into a set of formal simulation models that are (later) translated into an executable implementation. The final simulation models are specified using Routed DEVS formalism. The methodological proposal is accomplished with the development of a Modelling and Simulation graphical software tool that uses the set of models (defined in terms of the Model-Driven Engineering approach) as the core of its operation. This graphical software tool is developed as a plug-in for Eclipse Integrated Development Environment with aims to take advantage of existent Modeling and Simulation software. Therefore, the usefulness of graphical modeling for supporting the development of the simulation models is empowered with a Model-Driven Engineering process. The main benefit obtained when the Model-Driven Engineering approach is used for modeling an abstraction of the final simulation model is a clear reduction of formalization and implementation times.Fil: Blas, María Julia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño; ArgentinaFil: Gonnet, Silvio Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño; Argentin

Computer automated multi-paradigm modelling for analysis and design of traffic networks

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. H. Vangheluwe, and J. de Lara, "Computer automated multi-paradigm modelling for analysis and design of traffic networks", Proceedings of the 2004 Winter Simulation Conference, 2004, Volumen 1, Heidelberg, Germany, 2004Computer automated multiparadigm modelling (CAMPaM) is an enabler for domain-specific analysis and design. Traffic, a new untimed visual formalism for vehicle traffic networks, is introduced. The syntax of traffic models is meta-modelled in the entity-relationship diagrams formalism. From this, augmented with concrete syntax information, a visual modelling environment is synthesized using our CAMPaM tool AToM3, a tool for multiformalism and meta-modelling. The semantics of the traffic formalism is subsequently modelled by mapping traffic models onto Petri net models. As models' abstract syntax is graph-like, graph rewriting can be used to transform models. The advantages of a domain-specific formalism such as traffic as opposed to a generic formalism such as Petri nets are presented. We demonstrate how mapping onto Petri nets allows one to employ the vast array of Petri net analysis techniques. A coverability graph is generated and conservation analysis is automated by transforming this graph into an integer linear programming specificationJuan de Lara’s work has been partially sponsored by the Spanish Interdepartmental Commission of Science and Technology (CICYT), project number TIC2002-01948. Hans Vangheluwe gratefully acknowledges partial support for this work by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Individual Research Grant. The authors wish to thank Ms. Sokhom Pheng for her work on the Petri Net conservation analysis during her “Modelling and Simulation Based Design” project at McGill Universit

A Framework for Executable Systems Modeling

Systems Modeling Language (SysML), like its parent language, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), consists of a number of independently derived model languages (i.e. state charts, activity models etc.) which have been co-opted into a single modeling framework. This, together with the lack of an overarching meta-model that supports uniform semantics across the various diagram types, has resulted in a large unwieldy and informal language schema. Additionally, SysML does not offer a built in framework for managing time and the scheduling of time based events in a simulation. In response to these challenges, a number of auxiliary standards have been offered by the Object Management Group (OMG); most pertinent here are the foundational UML subset (fUML), Action language for fUML (Alf), and the UML profile for Modeling and Analysis of Real Time and Embedded Systems (MARTE). However, there remains a lack of a similar treatment of SysML tailored towards precise and formal modeling in the systems engineering domain. This work addresses this gap by offering refined semantics for SysML akin to fUML and MARTE standards, aimed at primarily supporting the development of time based simulation models typically applied for model verification and validation in systems engineering. The result of this work offers an Executable Systems Modeling Language (ESysML) and a prototype modeling tool that serves as an implementation test bed for the ESysML language. Additionally a model development process is offered to guide user appropriation of the provided framework for model building

A Model of Computation for Reconfigurable Systems

The dissertation introduces RecDEVS, a model of computation for reconfigurable hardware systems. Existing computational models for conventional hardware structures are not suited very well to model the dynamic behavior of reconfigurable systems. This work first systematically investigates the requirements that are necessary to properly model reconfigurable systems. Then, the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism is extended into RecDEVS, a formalism capable of modeling reconfigurable systems. It is then demonstrated how RecDEVS can be utilized to do a a model based design flow that eases system verification

A DEVS-based pivotal modeling formalism and its verification and validation framework

System verification is an ever-lasting system engineering challenge. The increasing complexity in system simulation requires some level of expertise in handling the idioms of logic and discrete mathematics to correctly drive a full verification process. It is recognized that visual modeling can help to fill the knowledge gap between system experts and analysis experts. However, such an approach has been used on the one hand to specify the behavior of complex systems, and on the other hand to specify complex requirement properties, but not simultaneously. This paper proposes a framework that is unique in supporting a full system verification process based on the graphical modeling of both the system of interest and the requirements to be checked. Patterns are defined to transform the resulting models to formal specifications that a model checker can manipulate. A real-time crossing system is used to illustrate the proposed framework

A modeling and verification approach to the design of distributed IMA architectures using TTEthernet

ABSTRACT: Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architectures complemented with Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet) provides a strong platform to support the design and deployment of distributed avionic software systems. The complexity of the design and continuous integration of such systems can be managed using a model-based methodology. In this paper, we build on top of our extension of the AADL modeling language to model TTEthernet-based distributed systems and leverage model transformations to enable undertaking the verification of the system models produced with this methodology. In particular, we propose to transform the system models to a model suitable for a simulation with DEVS. We illustrate the proposed approach using an example of a navigation and guidance system and we use this example to show the verification of the contention-freedom property of TTEthernet schedule