Automatic generation of models from detected hardware

• US 10,360,052 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2015
• Issued: 07/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: The MathWorks, Inc.
• Inventors: Zander, Justyna, Galijasevic, Zijad, Mosterman, Pieter J., Koh, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Jones, Hugh M
• Application Number:
  US14/611,773
• Time in Patent Office: 1,632 Days
• Field of Search: 703 20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines

Abstract

A method may include establishing a connection with a physical device, by a device. The method may include receiving information identifying the physical device, by the device. The method may include determining physical device information based on receiving the information identifying the physical device, by the device. The physical device information may be a description of the physical device. The method may include generating a set of model elements based on the physical device information, by the device. The set of model elements may include program code associated with simulating a behavior associated with the physical device. The method may include associating the set of model elements with a device model corresponding to the physical device, by the device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

determine physical device information associated with a physical device,

the physical device information being determined based on at least one of locating a data structure identified by a location identifier or performing a network search using information identifying the physical device,

the data structure being physically remote to the physical device;

generate a model element associated with the physical device based on the physical device information,

the model element being associated with modeling a behavior of the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model element and the physical device; and

add the model element to a model associated with the physical device;

where the physical device information includes at least one of;

declarative information;

imperative information;

dynamically typed information;

array based information;

or

model based information.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

transmit a request for a physical device information pointer;

receive the physical device information pointer based on transmitting the request,

the physical device information pointer identifying a location associated with the physical device information; and

where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to determine the physical device information, further cause the one or more processors to;

receive the physical device information from the data structure associated with the location identified by the physical device information pointer.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

determine a set of functionalities associated with the physical device,

the set of functionalities not including a particular functionality;

generate program code associated with configuring the physical device to perform the particular functionality;

deploy the program code to the physical device to configure the physical device to perform the particular functionality; and

update the model element associated with the physical device to include the particular functionality.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

receive operational data associated with a simulation from the physical device associated with a behavior of the physical device;

process the operational data associated with the simulation using the model element associated with the physical device; and

provide one or more instructions to the physical device based on processing the operational data via a connection with the physical device,

the one or more instructions describing a desired behavior of the physical device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more instructions, that cause the one or more processors to generate the model element associated with the physical device, further cause the one or more processors to:

generate program code associated with executing the model element,

the program code conforming to an execution framework associated with the model.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the model element includes at least one of:

a graphical model element;

or

a textual model element.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more processors, that execute the one or more instructions, are associated with a device that includes at least one of:

a processor;

a homogenous multi-core processor;

a heterogeneous multi-core processor;

a homogenous multi-processor;

a heterogeneous multi-processor;

a field programmable gate array;

or

a graphical programming unit.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, where the one or more instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to:

store information associated with the model element in one or more data structures; and

utilize the stored information to generate another model element for another physical device.

9. A method, comprising:

determining physical device information based on receiving information identifying a physical device,

the physical device information being a description of one or more functionalities of the physical device, and

the determining the physical device information being performed by the device;

generating a set of one or more model elements based on the physical device information,

the set of model elements including program code associated with simulating a behavior associated with the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model elements and the physical device, and

the generating the set of model elements being performed by the device; and

associating the set of model elements with a device model corresponding to the physical device,

the associating the set of model elements being performed by the device;

where the physical device information includes at least one of;

declarative information;

imperative information;

dynamically typed information;

array based information;

or

model based information.

10. The method of claim 9, where the physical device information includes at least one of:

information that identifies a hardware element of a set of hardware elements associated with the physical device;

information that identifies connection information associated with the physical device;

information that identifies software associated with the physical device;

information that identifies a toolchain associated with the physical device;

information associated with an input of the physical device;

or

information associated with an output of the physical device.

11. The method of claim 9, where generating the set of model elements further comprises:

determining information associated with integrating the device model into a modeling environment; and

where the information associated with integrating the device model into a modeling environment includes at least one of;

information identifying a sample time attribute;

information identifying a set of ports;

or

information identifying a set of port dimensions.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

locating the physical device information using the information identifying the physical device,

the physical device information being located by searching a network.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

locating the physical device information using the information identifying the physical device,

the physical device information being located locally to the device.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a set of functionalities associated with the physical device;

generating particular program code associated with a particular functionality,

the particular functionality not being included in the set of functionalities associated with the physical device;

incorporating the generated particular program code into the program code associated with simulating the behavior associated with the physical device; and

providing the generated particular program code to the physical device to incorporate the particular functionality into the set of functionalities associated with the physical device.

15. A device, comprising:

one or more processors to;

receive physical device information from a data structure based on the physical device identification information associated with a physical device,

the data structure being physically remote from the physical device; and

generate a model element associated with the physical device based on the physical device information,

the model element having executable semantics,

the model element including generated program code associated with the physical device, and

the model element being associated with modeling a behavior of the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model element and the physical device;

where the physical device information includes at least one of;

declarative information;

imperative information;

dynamically typed information;

array based information;

or

model based information.

16. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors are further to:

add the model element to a network of model elements associated with one or more physical devices,

the one or more physical devices including the physical device,

the network of model elements including a set of other model elements; and

determine that a particular physical device associated with another model element of the set of other model elements is out of range of the device; and

remove the other model element, of the set of other model elements, from the network of model elements.

17. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors are further to:

perform an Internet search for the physical device information using the physical device identification information; and

where the one or more processors, when receiving the physical device information, are further to;

receive the physical device information based on performing the Internet search.

18. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors are further to:

parse the physical device information to identify information associated with a hardware element of the physical device; and

where the one or more processors, when generating the model element, are further to;

generate the model element based on the information associated with the hardware element of the physical device,

the generated program code associated with the physical device including a class object associated with the hardware element of the physical device.

19. The device of claim 15, where the one or more processors, when receiving the physical device information, are further to:

receive particular physical device information associated with a particular information format;

receive interpretation information associated with interpreting the particular information format; and

adapt the particular physical device information into another information format based on the interpretation information,

the other information format being a format based on which a model element may be generated.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

determine physical device information associated with a physical device,

the physical device information being determined based on;

(1) performing an Internet search using information identifying the physical device, and (2) receiving the physical device information based performing the Internet search,

the data structure being physically remote to the physical device;

generate a model element associated with the physical device based on the physical device information,

the model element being associated with modeling a behavior of the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model element and the physical device; and

add the model element to a model associated with the physical device.

21. A method, comprising:

determining physical device information based on;

(1) receiving information identifying a physical device, (2) performing an Internet search for the physical device information using the information identifying the physical device, and (3) receiving the physical device information based on performing the Internet search,

the physical device information being a description of one or more functionalities of the physical device, and

the determining the physical device information being performed by the device;

generating a set of one or more model elements based on the physical device information,

the set of model elements including program code associated with simulating a behavior associated with the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model elements and the physical device, and

the generating the set of model elements being performed by the device; and

associating the set of model elements with a device model corresponding to the physical device,

the associating the set of model elements being performed by the device.

22. A device, comprising:

one or more processors to;

perform an Internet search for physical device information using physical device identification information associated with a physical device;

receive the physical device information from a data structure based on the physical device identification information, and based on performing the Internet search,

the data structure being physically remote from the physical device; and

generate a model element associated with the physical device based on the physical device information,

the model element having executable semantics,

the model element including generated program code associated with the physical device, and

the model element being associated with modeling a behavior of the physical device or including information enabling communication between the model element and the physical device.