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In this article, we present the process of modeling control algorithms as means to increase reliability of software components. The approach to developing Embedded Control Software (ECS) is tailored to Component-Based Software Development (CBSD). Such tailoring allows to re-use the ECS development process tools in a development process for robotics software. Model-to-text transformation of the ECS design tool is extended to model-to-component transformation suitable for CBSD frameworks. The development process and tools are demonstrated by a use case.

Development of computerized embedded control systems is difficult because it brings together systems theory, electrical engineering and computer science. The engineering and analysis approaches advocated by these disciplines are fundamentally different which complicates reasoning about e.g. performance at the system level. We propose a light-weight approach that alleviates this problem to some extent. An existing formal semantic framework for discrete event models is extended to allow for consistent co-simulation of continuous time models from within this framework. It enables integrated models that can be checked by simulation in addition to the verification and validation techniques already offered by each discipline individually. The level of confidence in the design can now be raised in the very early stages of the system design life-cycle instead of postponing system-level design issues until the integration and test phase is reached. We demonstrate the extended semantic framework by co-simulation of VDM++ and bond-graph models on a case study, the level control of a water tank.