Model‐Based Tool Integration and Ontology‐Driven Traceability in Model‐Based Development Environments

The landscape of tools available for model-based development of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) is vast, encompassing numerous specialized tools designed to support models at the component-level. In reality, the different parts of the system represented by these component-level models are often physically tightly coupled and interdependent, and the models themselves are subject to change and evolve over time. However, due to the lack of interoperability between tools it is often challenging to integrate component-level models into larger system simulations and to support model evolution across the entire product lifecycle. In order to streamline the system development process and allow for seamless integration of models and a variety of development tools, a comprehensive integrated model-based development environment is required. To address these challenges, this thesis contributes a model-based tool integration approach and an ontology-driven automated traceability method that utilizes a standardized integration convention, language-neutral model transformation technology, and co-simulation technique to integrate several tools for CPSs development as well as to automatically establish and maintain traceability between heterogeneous artifacts created throughout the product development lifecycle. The applicability, validity, and usefulness of these approaches and the developed prototypes are demonstrated through industrial-relevant use case examples. In particular, the main contributions presented in this thesis are summarized as follows: Design, development, and validation of an ontology-driven approach for multidisciplinary collaborative modeling and traceability support throughout the development process for CPSs; Design, development, and validation of a general approach for modeling a composite model containing several tool-specific simulation component-level models which can be integrated, connected, and simulated using the Transmission Line Modeling (TLM) co-simu
Funding agencies: The research presented in this thesis has been supported by Vinnova in the ITEA2 MODRIO, OPENCPS, and EMPHYSIS projects, by EU in the H2020 INTO-CPS project and, by the CleanSky Joint Undertaking project PyModSimA (JTI-CS-2013-2- SGO-02-064). Support from the Swedish Government has also been received from the ELLIIT project, and the Swedish Strategic Research Foundation (SSF) in the Proviking EDOP project. The Open Source Modelica Consortium supports the continuous development of the OpenModelica framework.