A structuring mechanism for embedded control systems using co-modelling and co-simulation

In most embedded control system (ECS) designs, multiple engineering disciplines and various domain-specific models are involved, such as embedded software models in discrete-event (DE) domain and dynamic plant model in continuous-time (CT) domain. In this paper, we advocate collaborative modelling and co-simulation to verify different aspects of the system as a whole before implementation. This paper proposes a development approach and structuring mechanism for CT-intensive ECS designs using co-modelling and co-simulation techniques. Based on this approach, an integrated co-model can be developed and refined using different domain-specific languages and tools. Influences from one domain to the other can be simulated via co-simulation and analysed in both perspectives. Our structuring and development process has been applied to a mobile robot using this co-simulation technique. We have experienced that structuring the co-modelling process allows us to produce co-models an co-simulations effectively. Future work is on checking for model inconsistencies during collaboration, and provide approaches to deal with this.