Managing Heterogeneity in Model-Based Systems Engineering of Cyber-Physical Systems

Model-based Systems Engineering plays a pivotal role in the design of distributed embedded systems by enabling early virtual integration of the different parts of the system. Traditionally, the system model is composed of subsystem models at the same level of abstraction and with one particular view. However, in some cases the system model may comprise subsystem models at different levels of abstraction. Integration of these different abstraction level models imposes some important drawbacks which hinder the overall system simulations. These drawbacks need to be addressed to facilitate the simulation of systems composed with multi-level subsystem models. In this paper we report on modelling techniques for embedded and distributed systems to deal with this heterogeneity. We describe a methodology to (semi-)automatically generate an executable multi-level system simulation model starting from an abstract system architecture of the system. A platooning system example is used to demonstrate the new modelling techniques.