Representing Embedded System Sequence Diagrams as a Formal Language

Abstract

Abstract. Sequence Diagrams (SDs) have proven useful for describing transaction-oriented systems, and can form a basis for creating statecharts. However, distributed embedded systems require special support for branching, state information, and composing SDs. Actors must traverse many SDs when using a complex embedded system. Current techniques are insufficiently rich to represent the behavior of real systems, such as elevators, without augmentation, and cannot identify the correct SD to execute next from any given state of the system. We propose the application of formal language theory to ensure that SDs (which can be thought of as specifying a grammar) have sufficient information to create statecharts (which implement the automata that recognize that grammar). A promising approach for SD to statechart synthesis then involves `compiling` SDs represented in an LL(1) grammar into statecharts, and permits us to bring the wealth of formal language and compiler theory to bear on this problem area.

Branching Time Semantics for UML 2.0 Sequence Diagrams

“…Hence authors of [2] and [9] proposed a formal semantics to the interaction diagrams of UML 1.x by the generation of an order relation that schedules the message emissions and receptions and can be automatically translated into a flattened Petri net or automata. Similarly, [6] presented a methodology to convert UML 1.x SD to a context-free grammar and applied parsing theory to locate non-determinism behavior. Additional information is discussed to attain deterministic behaviors for embedded systems modeling.…”

Representing user workarounds as a component of system dependability

“…Building on the work of [Latronico01], the set of valid uses of a system can be described by a graph representing the possible strings created by a formal language representing the system design. Within such a graph, a vertex is a sequence diagram and an arc is a path connecting one SD to a valid successor SD.…”

“…The work presented in this paper builds upon the previous work in [Latronico01], which showed that UML sequence diagrams could be augmented and combined to create a formal language representing all valid uses of a system. In particular, a complex embedded system typically has many different UML use cases that represent different system capabilities.…”