Alessio Bucaioni

OSLC Tool Integration and Systems Engineering -- The Relationship between the Two Worlds

OSLC is a new standard for the integration of tools used in different phases of software development. It enables to establish relations among different data artifacts throughout the life cycle of an application. OSLC aims to provide seamless integration of life cycle management tools and it enables to have explicit relationships among data artifacts from the early development phases, i.e., Requirements. This helps to gain a better holistic view over the development of software as a system development activity. Systems engineering is in essence an interdisciplinary approach to understand, design, and manage the complexity of different projects and phenomena throughout their life cycle. In this context, to have a holistic view of the system is not a desirable, but a fundamental prerequisite. In this work, we i) investigate how OSLC can strengthen a systemic view in tool integration scenarios and ii) discuss also how systems engineering concepts and principles can be relevant to describe such scenarios. This is done by identifying the relationships among systems engineering and OSLC core concepts. Finally, we show, as a proof of concept, a concrete application of OSLC in building an integrated tool chain.

A Model-Based Testing Framework for Automotive Embedded Systems

Architectural models, such as those described in the east language, represent convenient abstractions to reason about automotive embedded software systems. To enjoy the fully-fledged advantages of reasoning, EAST-ADL models could benefit from a component-aware analysis framework that provides, ideally, both verification and model-based test-case generation capabilities. While different verification techniques have been developed for architectural models, only a few target EAST-ADL. In this paper, we present a methodology for code validation, starting from EAST-ADL artifacts. The methodology relies on: (i) automated model-based test-case generation for functional requirements criteria based on the EAST-ADL model extended with timed automata semantics, and (ii) validation of system implementation by generating Python test scripts based on the abstract test-cases. The scripts represent concrete test-cases that are executable on the system implementation. We apply our methodology to analyze the ABS function implementation of the Brake-by-Wire system prototype.

Exploring Timing Model Extractions at EAST-ADL Design-Level Using Model Transformations

We discuss the problem of extracting control and data flows from vehicular distributed embedded systems at higher abstraction levels during their development. Unambiguous extraction of control and data flows is vital part of the end-to-end timing model which is used as input by the end-to end timing analysis engines. The goal is to support end-to-end timing analysis at higher abstraction levels. In order to address the problem, we propose a two-phase methodology that exploits the principles of Model Driven Engineering and Component Based Software Engineering. Using this methodology, the software architecture at a higher level is automatically transformed to all legal implementation-level models. The end-to-end timing analysis is performed on each generated implementation-level model and the analysis results are fed back to the design-level model. This activity supports design space exploration, model refinement and/or remodeling at higher abstraction levels for tuning the timing behavior of the system.

Understanding bidirectional transformations with TGGs and JTL

In Model-Driven Engineering bidirectional model transformations emerged as an important ingredient to cope with scenarios such as change propagation, synchronization and to keep consistent system views whenever changes occurring on some view have to be propagated over the others. However, bidirectional mappings open a number of intricate issues that have been only partially solved by research. This paper identifies a set of features characterizing bidirectional transformations and validates them against two existing approaches. In particular, a scenario based on the UML2RDBMS transformation and consisting of two different configurations is implemented by means of two different approaches, such as Triple Graph Grammars and the Janus Transformation Language, for understanding bidirectional transformations with respect to the elicited features.

From Modeling to Deployment of Component-Based Vehicular Distributed Real-Time Systems

We present complete model-and component based approach for the development of vehicular distributed real-time systems. Within this context, we model and timing analyze these systems using one of the state-of-the-practice modeling and timing analysis techniques that is implemented in the existing industrial model the Rubus Component Model and accompanying tool suite. As a proof of concept, we conduct a case study by developing an intelligent parking assist system which is a distributed real-time application from the vehicular domain. The case study shows various stages during the development such as modeling of software architecture, performing timing analysis, simulation, testing, automatic synthesis of code from the software architecture, deployment, and execution.

Modeling of Vehicular Distributed Embedded Systems: Transition from Single-Core to Multi-core

Model- and component-based software development has emerged as an attractive option for the development of vehicle software on single-core platforms. There are many challenges that are encountered when the existing component models, that are originally designed for the software development of vehicular distributed single-core embedded systems, are extended for the software development on multi-core platforms. This paper targets the challenge of extending the structural hierarchies in the existing component models to enable the software development on multi-core platforms. The proposed extensions ensure backward compatibility of the component models to support the software development of legacy single-core systems. Moreover, the proposed extensions also anticipate forward compatibility of the component models to the future many-core platforms.

A Metamodel for the Rubus Component Model: Extensions for Timing and Model Transformation From EAST-ADL

According to the model-driven engineering paradigm, one of the entry requirements when realizing a seamless tool chain for the development of software is the definition of metamodels, to regulate the specification of models, and model transformations, for automating manipulations of models. In this context, we present a metamodel definition for the Rubus component model, an industrial solution used for the development of vehicular embedded systems. The metamodel includes the definition of structural elements as well as elements for describing timing information. In order to show how, using model-driven engineering, the integration between different modeling levels can be automated, we present a model-to-model transformation between models conforming to EAST-ADL and models described by means of the Rubus component model. To validate our solution, we exploit a set of industrial automotive applications to show the applicability of both the Rubus component model metamodel and the model transformation.

Alignment of Requirements and Testing in Agile: An Industrial Experience

Agile development aims at switching the focus from processes to interactions between stakeholders, from heavy to minimalistic documentation, from contract negotiation and detailed plans to customer collaboration and prompt reaction to changes. With these premises, requirements traceability may appear to be an overly exigent activity, with little or no return-of-investment. However, since testing remains crucial even when going agile, the developers need to identify at a glance what to test and how to test it. That is why, even though requirements traceability has historically faced a firm resistance from the agile community, it can provide several benefits when promoting precise alignment of requirements with testing. This paper reports on our experience in promoting traceability of requirements and testing in the data communications for mission-critical systems in an industrial Scrum project. We define a semi-automated requirements tracing mechanism which coordinates four traceability techniques. We evaluate the solution by applying it to an industrial project aiming at enhancing the existing Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol by adding Simple Network Management Protocol support.

Timing verification of component-based vehicle software with rubus-ICE: end-user's experience

This paper discusses an end-users experiences of utilizing timing analysis tools to verify predictability of distributed embedded systems in the vehicle industry. The analysis tools are plug-ins for an industrial tool suite, namely Rubus-ICE, that is based on the principles of model-based engineering (MBE) and component-based software engineering (CBSE). These plug-ins implement various state-of-the-art timing analyses including response-time analysis and end-to-end data-path analysis. The experiences discussed in this paper provide a useful feedback in terms of usability and validity of assumptions to the tools provider as well as to the academia.

Technology-Preserving Transition from Single-Core to Multi-core in Modelling Vehicular Systems

The vehicular industry has exploited model-based engineering for design, analysis, and development of single-core vehicular systems. Next generation of autonomous vehicles will require higher computational power, which can only be provided by parallel computing platforms such as multi-core electronic control units. Current model-based software development solutions and related modelling languages, originally conceived for single-core, cannot effectively deal with multi-core specific challenges, such as core-interdependency and allocation of software to hardware. In this paper, we propose an extension to the Rubus Component Model, central to the Rubus model-based approach, for the modelling, analysis, and development of vehicular systems on multi-core. Our goal is to provide a lightweight transition of a model-based software development approach from single-core to multi-core, without disrupting the current technological assets in the vehicular domain.