From design to implementation: tool support for the development of object-oriented distributed real-time systems

Abstract

The increasing complexity in the development of real−time systems leads designers to make use of techniques that help handle the complexity. One method to deal with complexity that became popular in the last years is the use of the object−oriented paradigm. Some advances in hardware technology have made possible to overcome the overhead problems that prevented its adoption in the past. This paper describes an integrated software environment called SiMOO−RT, developed under the context of ADOORATA project (A Distributed Object−Oriented Architecture for Real−Time Automation), a Brazilian−German cooperation that guides designers to explore the whole phases of a real−time software development under the object− oriented paradigm. Here, the main features of the tool are presented and validated through means of a case study, and future directions of the project are highlighted.

SIMOO-RT-an object-oriented framework for the development of real-time industrial automation systems

“…This interface interacts with another implementation of the class that has modified methods to provide transparent RMI or message publishing (when using publisher/subscriber communication 2 Method with periodic activation. 3 Method with an associated deadline.…”

“…Overview SIMOO-RT [2] is a framework developed at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil, aiming to cover all development steps of OO real-time systems, specially those used in industrial automation applications. It provides diagram editors and configuration folders to help designers follow the sequence of steps suggested in Section II.…”

On mapping RT-UML specifications to RT-Java API: bridging the gap

“…This comes from the fact that not only structural restrictions should be captured, but also the involved timing constraints. In previous research developed by the authors in the development of the SIMOO-RT CASE tool [1], timing constraints that can be associated with class methods are directed mapped to the generated code. In this case, two kinds of timing constraints are taken into consideration: cyclic operations and deadlines.…”

“…Built upon the previous experience of the authors in automatic code generation from object-oriented diagrams, the work presented in this paper contributes to the process of mapping UML diagrams enriched with standardized timing annotations to the programming level. Similar to the approach proposed in [1] for the SIMOO-RT environment, the approach goes beyond a "class skeleton" generation (i.e. only structural aspects) and includes a mapping from timing requirements to code, in a clear and elegant fashion.…”

“…They can be represented in UML by collaboration and sequence diagrams decorated with the stereotypes coming from the 1 The complete set of attributes from Response can be seen in the class diagram in Figure 1. profile. The former is useful for expressing the complete set of triggers and responses within a system, together with the shared resources and their characteristics.…”