Facilitating the Modeling and Analysis of Distributed Real-time Embedded Systems

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT 0541131 Betty Cheng Michigan State University Title: Facilitating the Modeling and Analysis of Distributed Real-time Embedded Systems The demand for and complexity of distributed real-time embedded systems (DREs) has increased considerably in recent years, occurring in many applications, such as automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, medical systems, and telecommunication. The increase in the number and complexity of DREs strongly motivates the need for more rigorous, repeatable, and cost-effective development techniques. To address this challenge, we propose to develop a number of techniques and artifacts that will facilitate the modeling and analysis of DREs, with the intent of preventing and/or detecting errors in the early stages of development prior to design, coding, and fabrication. Specifically, we will develop extensions to UML to denote timing information applicable to DREs; develop object analysis patterns for DREs comprising templates for UML diagrams with DRE extensions; and develop timing-based formal specification patterns for specifying critical safety properties of DREs. The broader impact of this project is that by bridging informal, commonly-used techniques with rigorous, and more formal techniques, a larger development community is able to build higher quality models and DRE systems. For example, a natural-language front-end will be developed for the formal specifications to make the formal specification patterns more accessible to the broader DRE development community. In order to automatically analyze the UML diagrams, we will extend our previously developed UML formalization framework to automatically generate corresponding formal specifications from the UML diagrams with DRE extensions. These specification can then be analyzed by simulation or model checked for adherence to critical properties (specified with the specification patterns). Analysis errors will be visualized in terms of the original UML diagrams, thus facilitating a round-trip engineering approach to UML model creation and refinement. Both the UML and the formal specification patterns will developed based on analyses of projects obtained from industrial partners, thus further ensuring the utility and applicability to industrial projects.