Model-Driven Robot-Software Design using integrated Models and Co-Simulation

The work presented here is on a methodology for design of hard real-time embedded control software for robots, i.e. mechatronic products. The behavior of the total robot system (machine, control, software and I/O) is relevant, because the dynamics of the machine influences the robot software. Therefore, we use two appropriate Models of Computation, which represent continuous-time equations for the machine / robot part, and discrete event / discrete time equations for the control software part. To compute (simulate) such combined models, co-simulation of these models is used. The design work can be done as a stepwise refinement process, whereby each step is verified via co-simulation. This in general yields a shorter design time, and a better quality product. The tools pass model-specific information between each other via parametrized tokens in the generated, high-level code to get a better separation of design steps. This allows for better quality of the models and more reuse, thus enhancing the efficiency of model-driven design for the (industrial) end user. The method is illustrated with a case study using the tools, some of which are at the prototype level. Especially the structuring of the models and regularly doing simulations (of which some can be 'repeated' as real experiments), is beneficial, shortening the development time and producing better models. Future work is to test the method on more complex cases, and to extend the method by detailing out the electronics and mechanics sub design flows.