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Present and Ulterior Software Engineering pp 173–194Cite as

Sound Simulation and Co-simulation for Robotics

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Abstract

Software engineering for modern robot applications needs attention; current practice suffers from costly iterations of trial and error, with hardware and environment in the loop. We propose the adoption of an approach to simulation and co-simulation of robotics applications where designs and (co-)simulations are amenable to verification. In this approach, designs are composed of several (co-)models whose relationship is defined using a SysML profile. Simulation is the favoured technique for analysis in industry, and co-simulation enables the orchestrated use of a variety of simulation tools, including, for instance, reactive simulators and simulators of control laws. Here, we define the SysML profile that we propose and give it a process algebraic semantics. With that semantics, we capture the properties of the SysML model that must be satisfied by a co-simulation. Our long-term goal is to support validation and verification beyond what can be achieved with simulation.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the INTO-CPS EU grant and EPSRC grant EP/M025756/1. The authors are grateful to Wei Li, Pedro Ribeiro, Augusto Sampaio, and Jon Timmis for many discussions on RoboChart and simulation of robotic applications. No new primary data was created during this study.

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Author notes

  1. Richard Payne

    Present address: The Nine Software Company Limited, South Tyneside, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Ana Cavalcanti, Alvaro Miyazawa & Jim Woodcock

  2. School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Richard Payne

Authors
  1. Ana Cavalcanti
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  2. Alvaro Miyazawa
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  3. Richard Payne
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  4. Jim Woodcock
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Cavalcanti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Innopolis University , Innopolis, Russia

    Manuel Mazzara

  2. Chair of Software Engineering, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Bertrand Meyer

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Cavalcanti, A., Miyazawa, A., Payne, R., Woodcock, J. (2017). Sound Simulation and Co-simulation for Robotics. In: Mazzara, M., Meyer, B. (eds) Present and Ulterior Software Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67425-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67425-4_11

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