Modular and Distributed Verification of SysML Activity Diagrams

International audienceModel-based development for complex system design has been used to support the increase of systems complexity. SysML is a modeling language that allows a system description with various integrated diagrams, but SysML lacks formality for the requirement verification. Translating SysML-based specification into Petri nets allows to enable rigorous system analysis. However, for complex systems, we have to deal with the state space explosion problem. In this paper, we propose new approach to allow a modular and distributed verification of SysML Activity Diagram basing on the derived Petri net

Executable system architecting using systems modeling language in conjunction with Colored Petri Nets - a demonstration using the GEOSS network centric system

Models and simulation furnish abstractions to manage complexities allowing engineers to visualize the proposed system and to analyze and validate system behavior before constructing it. Unified Modeling Language (UML) and its systems engineering extension, Systems Modeling Language (SysML), provide a rich set of diagrams for systems specification. However, the lack of executable semantics of such notations limits the capability of analyzing and verifying defined specifications. This research has developed an executable system architecting framework based on SysML-CPN transformation, which introduces dynamic model analysis into SysML modeling by mapping SysML notations to Colored Petri Net (CPN), a graphical language for system design, specification, simulation, and verification. A graphic user interface was also integrated into the CPN model to enhance the model-based simulation. A set of methodologies has been developed to achieve this framework. The aim is to investigate system wide properties of the proposed system, which in turn provides a basis for system reconfiguration --Abstract, page iii

Non-functional property analysis using UML2.0 and model transformations

Real-time embedded architectures consist of software and hardware parts. Meeting non-functional constraints (e.g., real-time constraints) greatly depends on the mappings from the system functionalities to software and hardware components. Thus, there is a strong demand for precise architecture and allocation modeling, amenable to performance analysis. The report proposes a model-driven approach for the assessment of the quality of allocations of the system functionalities to the architecture. We consider two technical domains: the UML domain for the definition of the model elements (for both description and analysis), and an analysis domain, external to UML, used for formal verification. This report defines three meta-models, one for each domain, and provides automated transformations within and between these domains. A special attention is then paid to temporal property analysis, based on a particular analysis model: the Modular and Hierarchical Time Petri Nets

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

Non-functional property analysis using UML2.0 and model transformations

Real-time embedded architectures consist of software and hardware parts. Meeting non-functional constraints (e.g., real-time constraints) greatly depends on the mappings from the system functionalities to software and hardware components. Thus, there is a strong demand for precise architecture and allocation modeling, amenable to performance analysis. The report proposes a model-driven approach for the assessment of the quality of allocations of the system functionalities to the architecture. We consider two technical domains: the UML domain for the definition of the model elements (for both description and analysis), and an analysis domain, external to UML, used for formal verification. This report defines three meta-models, one for each domain, and provides automated transformations within and between these domains. A special attention is then paid to temporal property analysis, based on a particular analysis model: the Modular and Hierarchical Time Petri Nets

Understanding the Elements of Executable Architectures Through a Multi-Dimensional Analysis Framework

The objective of this dissertation study is to conduct a holistic investigation into the elements of executable architectures. Current research in the field of Executable Architectures has provided valuable solution-specific demonstrations and has also shown the value derived from such an endeavor. However, a common theory underlying their applications has been missing. This dissertation develops and explores a method for holistically developing an Executable Architecture Specification (EAS), i.e., a meta-model containing both semantic and syntactic information, using a conceptual framework for guiding data coding, analysis, and validation. Utilization of this method resulted in the description of the elements of executable architecture in terms of a set of nine information interrogatives: an executable architecture information ontology. Once the detail-rich EAS was constructed with this ontology, it became possible to define the potential elements of executable architecture through an intermediate level meta-model. The intermediate level meta-model was further refined into an interrogative level meta-model using only the nine information interrogatives, at a very high level of abstraction

Interface between SysML and Sequence Planner Language for Formal Verification

This paper presents a method and software for interfacing Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and Sequence Planner Language (SPL). Exchange of information between different software tools is of major interest for modern manufacturing industries from early design to final implementation. SysML, with its structure as a common platform, can then be interfaced with other domain-specific modeling tools to achieve information exchange. This paper presents a method to interface SysML with a recently introduced language for operation sequences called Sequence Planner Language (SPL). By this method, necessary information from behavioral constructs of SysML model are extracted and structured in SPL. This language, being a formal, graphical language,can be used to formally verify the system for any blocking states. An academic and an industrial model developed in SysML are tested using the interface implementation and the results show that information from SysML can be visualized in SPL and formally verified to have no blocking states

Combining SysML and Timed Coloured Petri Nets for Designing Smart City Applications

A smart city is an urban centre that integrates a variety of solutions to improve infrastructure performance and achieve sustainable urban development. Urban roads are a crucial infrastructure highly demanded by citizens and organisations interested in their deployment, performance, and safety. Urban traffic signal control is an important and challenging real-world problem that aims to monitor and improve traffic congestion. The deployment of traffic signals for vehicles or pedestrians at an intersection is a complex activity that changes constantly, so it is necessary to establish rules to control the flow of vehicles and pedestrians. Thus, this article describes the joint use of the SmartCitySysML, a profile proposed by the authors, with TCPN (Timed Coloured Petri Nets) to refine and formally model SysML diagrams specifying the internal behaviour, and then verify the developed model to prove behavioural properties of an urban traffic signal control system