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This paper deals with embedded systems architecture components called as application patterns, and with their employment for design reuse. The first part of this contribution introduces the concepts of application patterns and relates them to the well-known object-oriented design abstractions. Employing application patterns that demonstrate the concrete examples of reusability, the kernel of this contribution presents two case studies, which are based on real design projects: petrol pumping station dispenser controller and multiple lift control system. To reuse an architectural component whose implementation usually consists both of software and hardware, it means to reuse its formal specification. The paper deals with behavioral specifications employing state or timed-state sequences and with their closed-form descriptions by finite-state or timed automata. The contribution focuses on identification, creation, and initial classification of reusable application patterns while retrieval, adaptation, and storage reuse tasks with case-based reasoning support are treated briefly at the conclusion as an introductory information about launching research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In applications of formal methods, the problem of how to establish the correctness of the initial formalization step is an often underestimated aspect of the system design process. We propose a methodology based on the construction of a mathematical model which reflects the given system so closely that the correctness can be established by observation and experimentation (ground model). Complex technical systems are often heterogeneous, so that different system aspects are best modelled by means of different techniques. This leads to heterogeneous ground models. To achieve a consistent and coherent view of heterogeneous behavioural models, which is a prerequisite for any systematic analysis and validation, we introduce a common semantic framework (meta-model) based on the notion of Abstract State Machines. We exemplify our methodology by an industrial case study from automated manufacturing, the distributed control for a material flow system (MFS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to model complex systems it is indispensable to structure the modelings. The mechanism of abstraction as well as the usage of views is very helpful for structuring. In this paper I will discuss these aspects in the context of Petri systems in order to get fundamental definitions. It turns out, that with respect to many different definitions of Petri systems only a "generic definition" is possible. To get final definitions for concrete types of Petri systems it requires much further work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptual Design methods place some intermediate solution steps between problem definition and final technical solution. Functional Decomposition is such a method which aims at finding solution concepts in terms of functions first and, after that, technical realisations for the individual functions. The role of mathematical models in conceptual design is to provide some coarse quantitative assessment of certain solution concepts, and furthermore, to clarify the relationship between the Functional Requirements and the Design Parameters. Later on, in the more detailed design steps refined mathematical models are used. What is their relation to the early models used in conceptual design? The concept of perturbation analysis seems to provide a framework for defining and understanding these relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Real-Time Control System (RCS) Reference Model Architecture provides a well-defined strategy for development of software components for applications in robotics, automated manufacturing, and autonomous vehicles. ADLs are formally defined languages for specification of software system's designs. In this report, we describe the results of an investigation into the use of an ADL to specify RCS software systems, and assess the potential value of ADLs as specification and development tools for RCS domain experts. The report also discusses potential influence of ADLs for commercial software development tools and component-based development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of robotics is one of the most innovative in the last decade. Conventional industrial robots from the late 70's are now only a tool on the production level. One of the oldest dreams of the robotic community - intelligent, mobile and humanoid robots - starts to become a reality because of the rapid development of "external" sensors. External sensors (e.g. visual, auditive, force-torque) offer intelligent robots the possibility to see, hear, speak, feel, smell like humans. Compared with conventional, unintelligent, industrial robots, intelligent robots can fulfill new, innovative tasks in new application areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systematic use of what we now call Systems Theory in the description of biological systems, and more precisely, the nervous system, took off in the Forties although many of the basic ideas had been being managed in philosophic and scientific circles almost since the Ancient Greeks. From 1943 to 1945, a kind of synergetic process was started up, triggered as the result of three basic works. First, Norbert Wiener, Arthur Rosemblueth and Julian Bigelow's study (1943) on the nature of teleological processes where the crucial idea was that what was relevant in a homeostatic process was the information return and not theenergy return via the feedback links. It is representative of the analytical approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of Systems Theory lays in the kind of complex problems experienced by engineers (specifically in the field of communications and control) and scientists (in biology and ecology) in the mid of the 20th century. Then it became obvious, that the usual mathematical modeling concepts based on analysis (differential equations) and linear algebra (linear equations and matrices) were not any more appropriate. New mathematical methods in dealing with actual problems in formal modeling tasks were required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]