Method and digital tool for engineering software architectures of complex cyber-physical systems of different technical domains

• US 9,838,264 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Daniel, Donny Thomas, Morra, Carlos, Votintseva, Anjelika
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr., Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): HEBERT, THEODORE E
• Application Number:
  US14/428,566
• Publication Number:
  US 20160261466A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,175 Days
• Field of Search: 717105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/212 with details for data modelling support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/35 model driven
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network

Abstract

In order to engineer software architectures of complex cyber-physical systems of different technical domains such that both time and effort efficient and truly interactive engineering of software architectures of complex cyber-physical systems is enabled, it is proposed to provide an automatic enforcement of multi-level Constraints across architectural Views. This provides, (i) with regard to architectural aspects of such a complex cyber-physical system being captured in Views including various Entities being related to each other and entities being related across various Views and (ii) that these multi-view Constraints particularly implying that the Constraints placed on the Entities in one View may affect the validity of the relations of the Entities in another View, an error-free engineering, (e.g., without violating at least one Constraint), together with a rapid, in particular visual, feedback of Constraints being invalidated and Entities involved in the Constraints.

Claims

1. A method for engineering software architectures with architectural aspects of a complex cyber physical system being captured in views comprising entities being related to each other and being related across various views, the method comprising:

a) modeling, by graph-based modeling, the entities to be under analysis as nodes and relations between the entities as edges, wherein either no attribute or at least one attribute is assigned to the nodes and the edges, thereby mapping user input concepts into the nodes and the edges with the attributes and storing modeled graph data;

b) specifying properties desired of the entities as constraints having to be satisfied;

c) inputting at least one query and at least one constraint for the graph-based modeling;

d) evaluating the at least one constraint by transforming one graph into at least one other graph and using provided implementations of graph algorithms;

e) processing the at least one query against a current set of the stored graph data by using a graph-query-language;

f) evaluating the inputted constraints on a set of nodes and edges against the current set of the stored graph data and providing on detecting constraint-violations callback functions specifying locations of the constraint-violations; and

g) editing results of at least one of acts (a), (d), (e), or (f) for at least one of visualizing and outputting.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized by enabling defined by a template domain-specific information-based reuse of at least one of common queries, constraints, or architectural views.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the template is a view-template with a parameterized version of an actual view, the view-template comprising a graph-based description of at least one of what view-elements such as the nodes and edges to be visualized are, what the relations between the view-elements are, and how to layout and interact with the view-elements.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the template is a constraint-template comprising expressions containing variables that are substitutable with actual stored data to reuse the constraint-structure.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the template is a query-template comprising expressions containing variables that are substitutable with actual stored data to reuse the query-structure.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising enabling at least one of exporting input-data for external analysis/evaluation to and importing output-data of the external analysis/evaluation or importing external data from a first external tool for bulk export/import and a second external tool for interactive export/import.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the enabling of the exporting- and importing-functionality for the interactive export/import uses a plugin application programming interface for the interactive usage.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for engineering software architectures with architectural aspects of a complex cyber physical system being captured in views comprising entities being related to each other and being related across various views, the computer program comprising:

a model management software component;

a graphical user interface software component; and

a graph database software component, the model management software component, the graphical user interface software component, and the graph database software component forming a functional unit, wherein;

a) a graph-based modeling module of the model management software component functionally associated with the graphical user interface software component and the graph database software component, wherein the entities to be under analysis as nodes and relations between the entities as edges are modeled, whereby to both the nodes and the edges either no attribute or at least one attribute is assigned, thereby mapping user input concepts into the nodes and the edges with the attributes and modeled graph data are stored in the graph database software component;

b) the graph-based modeling module properties desired of the entities as constraints, which have to be satisfied, are specified;

c) the graphical user interface software component functionally associated with the graph-based modeling module at least one query and at least one constraint used by the graph-based modeling module for the graph-based modeling is inputted;

d) a graph transformation module and a graph analysis module of the model management software component functionally associated with each of the graph-based modeling module and the graph database software component the at least one constraint is evaluated by transforming one graph into at least one other graph and using implementations of graph algorithms provided by the graph analysis module;

e) a query processor module of the model management software component functionally associated with each of the graph-based modeling module, the graph transformation module, the graph analysis module, and the graph database software component and, using a graph-query-language, the at least one query is processed against a current set of the graph data in the graph database software component;

f) a constraint solver module of the model management software component functionally associated with each of the graph-based modeling module, the graph transformation module, the graph analysis module, and the graph database software component the inputted constraints on a set of nodes and edges are evaluated against the current set of the graph data in the graph database software component and on detecting constraint-violations callback functions specifying locations of the constraint-violations are provided; and

g) an editing-module of the graphical user interface software component functionally associated with each of the graph-based modeling module, the query processor module, and the constraint solver module results of at least one of the previous actions according to (a), (d), (e) and (f) for at least one of visualizing and outputting.

9. The medium according to claim 8, wherein a template library software component is enabled, the template library software component being functionally associated with the model management software component forming a first functional sub-unit such that defined by a template domain-specific information-based reuse of at least one of common queries, constraints, and architectural views.

10. The medium according to claim 9, wherein the template library software component comprises view-templates with a parameterized version of an actual view containing a graph-based description of at least one of what view-elements to be visualized are, what the relations between the view-elements are, and how to layout and interact with the view-elements.

11. The medium according to claim 9, wherein the template library software component comprises constraint-templates comprising expressions containing variables that are substitutable with actual data in the graph database software component to reuse the constraint-structure.

12. The medium according to claim 9, wherein the template library software component comprises query-templates comprising expressions containing variables that are substitutable with actual data in the graph database software component to reuse the query-structure.

13. The medium according to claim 8, further comprising an exporting/importing interface software component functionally associated with the model management software component forming a second functional sub-unit such that at least one of exporting input-data for external analysis/evaluation to a first external tool for bulk export/import and a second external tool for interactive export/import, and importing output-data of the external analysis/evaluation or importing external data from the first external tool and the second external tool is enabled.

14. The medium according to claim 13, wherein the exporting/importing interface software component enabling the exporting- and importing-functionality comprises, for the interactive export/import, a plugin application programming interface module for the interactive usage.

15. The medium according to claim 8, wherein the computer program is designed as an Application software to run on a computer or a server.

16. The medium according to claim 8, wherein the computer program is stored on a storage media being insertable into a computer or a server or being part of the computer or the server.

17. The medium according to claim 8, wherein the computer program is stored as cloud-computing on at least one server.