A real world object modeling method for creating simulation environment of real-time systems

ABSTRACT

Most real-time embedded control software feature complex interactions with asynchronous inputs and environment objects, and a meaningful simulation of a real-time control software specification requires realistic simulation of its environment. Two problems that need to be addressed in the simulation of a target software system and its environment: First, integration and simulation of the specifications of a target software system and its artificial environment are often performed too late in the lifecycle to provide any significant value. Second, real world objects in the environment usually have spatial characteristics (form) such as shape, motion, etc. that must be specified for simulation, and there is no method to express these spatial characteristics at various levels of abstraction that are adequate for the required simulation fidelity.To address these problems, we have developed a method that supports incremental specification and simulation of both the target software system and its environmental objects. The method includes: (1) a specification method for behavior, function, and form integrated objects; (2) form specification primitives that abstract common spatial characteristics of real world objects, their typical spatial relations, and spatial interactions; and (3) a methodology that refines, verifies, and validates behavior, function, and form specification of both the real-time embedded control software and its environment in a systematic and incremental manner. The proposed specification, verification, and validation method has been applied to a robot control system example to demonstrate its effectiveness and usefulness.

REFERENCES

• 1: R. M. Balzer, D. Cohen, M. S. Feather, N. M. Goldman, W. Swartout, and D. S. Wile, "Operational Specification as the Basis for Specification Validation," Theory and Practice of Software Technology, North-Holland Publishing Company, pp. 21-49, (1983).
• 2: Victor R. Basili , Barry T. Perricone, Software errors and complexity: an empirical investigation0, Communications of the ACM, v.27 n.1, p.42-52, Jan. 1984 [doi>10.1145/69605.2085]
• 3: B. W. Boehm, "Software Engineering Economics," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 10, pp. 4-21, (January 1984).
• 4: William Bruyn , Randall Jense , Dinesh Keskar , Paul Ward, An extended systems modeling language (ESML), ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.13 n.1, p.58-67, Jan. 1988 [doi>10.1145/43857.43866]
• 5: J. Buck, S. Ha, E. A. Lee, and D. G. Messerschmitt, "Ptolemy: a Framework for Simulating and Prototyping Heterogeneous Systems," International Journal of Computer Simulation, pp. 155-182, (April 1994).
• 6: William Chan , Richard J. Anderson , Paul Beame , David Notkin, Improving efficiency of symbolic model checking for state-based system requirements, ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, v.23 n.2, p.102-112, March 1998
• 7: Edmund M. Clarke , Orna Grumberg , David E. Long, Verification Tools for Finite-State Concurrent Systems, A Decade of Concurrency, Reflections and Perspectives, REX School/Symposium, p.124-175, June 01-04, 1993
• 8: Christopher J. Coomber, SCHEMASIM: a simulation environment for real-time systems, ACM SIGSIM Simulation Digest, v.23 n.3, p.50-63, Spring 1994 [doi>10.1145/191571.191582]
• 9: Tom DeMarco, Structured Analysis and System Specification, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1979
• 10: C. Gaskell and R. Phillips, "Executable Specifications and CASE," Software Engineering Journal, pp. 174-182, (July 1994).
• 11: David Harel, On visual formalisms, Communications of the ACM, v.31 n.5, p.514-530, May 1988 [doi>10.1145/42411.42414]
• 12: David Harel , Amir Pnueli , Hagi Lachover , Amnon Naamad , Michal Politi , Rivi Sherman , Aharon Shtull-Trauring , Mark Trakhtenbrot, STATEMATE: A Working Environment for the Development of Complex Reactive Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.16 n.4, p.403-414, April 1990 [doi>10.1109/32.54292]
• 13: David Harel , Eran Gery, Executable object modeling with statecharts, Proceedings of the 18th international conference on Software engineering, p.246-257, March 25-29, 1996, Berlin, Germany
• 14: Kyo C. Kang , Kwang-Il Ko, PARTS: a temporal logic-based real-time software specification and verification method, Proceedings of the 17th international conference on Software engineering, p.169-176, April 24-28, 1995, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/225014.225030]
• 15: K. C. Kang, K. W. Lee, J. Y. Lee, G. J. Kim, and H. J. Kim, "Refinement and Validation of Software Requirements Using Incremental Simulation," IEICE (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering) Transactions on Information and Systems, Vol. E81-D, No. 2, pp. 171-182, (February 1998).
• 16: Kyo C. Kang , Kwan W. Lee , Ji Y. Lee , Gerard J. Kim, ASADAL/SIM: an incremental multi-level simulation and analysis tool for real-time software specifications, Software—Practice & Experience, v.28 n.4, p.445-462, April 10, 1998 [doi>10.1002/(SICI)1097-024X(19980410)28:4<445::AID-SPE166>3.3.CO;2-A]
• 17: Georg Lehrenfeld , Rolf Naumann , Rainer Rasche , Carsten Rust , Jürgen Tacken, Integrated Design and Simulation of Hybrid Systems, Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, p.221-236, April 13-15, 1998
• 18: J. Y. Lee, "A Spatial Dimension Specification Method for Creation of Real-Time System Testbeds," Ph.D. thesis, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Written in Korean, (2000).
• 19: Nancy G. Leveson, Safeware: system safety and computers, ACM Press, New York, NY, 1995
• 20: David Esley Long, Model checking, abstraction, and compositional verification, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 1993
• 21: R. Pausch, Alice: Easy to Learn Interactive 3D Graphics, at "http://alice.cs.cmu.edu."
• 22: C. Dennis Pegden , Randall P. Sadowski , Robert E. Shannon, Introduction to Simulation Using SIMAN, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1995
• 23: A. Alan B. Pritsker, Introduction to simulation and SLAM II (4th ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1995
• 24: James Rumbaugh , Ivar Jacobson , Grady Booch, The Unified Modeling Language reference manual, Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd., Essex, UK, 1998
• 25: D. Sinclair , E. Holz , D. Witaszek , M. Wasowski, Validation of hybrid systems by co-simulation, Proceedings of the DIMACS/SYCON workshop on Hybrid systems III : verification and control: verification and control, p.315-326, July 1996, New Brunswick, NeW Jersey, United States
• 26: Paul S. Strauss , Rikk Carey, An object-oriented 3D graphics toolkit, Proceedings of the 19th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.341-349, July 1992
• 27: P. Zave, "An Operational Approach to Requirements Specification for Embedded Systems," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol.8, No.3, pp.250-269, (May 1982).
• 28: B. P. Zeigler, "DEVS Representation of Dynamical Systems: Event Based Intelligent Control," Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol.77, No.1, pp.72-80, (1989).
• 29: Bernard P. Zeigler , Hae Sang Song , Tag Gon Kim , Herbert Praehofer, DEVS Framework for Modelling, Simulation, Analysis, and Design of Hybrid Systems, Hybrid Systems II, p.529-551, January 1995
• 30: Building Simulation Models with SIMSCRIPT 11.5, at "ftp://ftp.caciasl.com/pub/simscript/docs/zbuildin.pdf," CACI Products Company, (1999).
• 31: IRIS Performer Programming Guide, Silicon Graphics, Inc., (1994).
• 32: Vega User's Manual, Paradigm Simulation, Inc., (1996).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.8 Problem Solving, Control Methods, and Search
          Subjects: Control theory

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.7 Organization and Design
          Subjects: Real-time systems and embedded systems

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING

General Terms:
Design, Performance, Reliability, Theory, Verification

Keywords:
real-time control software, requirement specification, simulation, validation, verification