The proliferation of small devices and the advancements in various technologies have introduced the concept of pervasive environments. In these environments, user tasks can be executed by using the deployed components provided by devices with different capabilities. One appropriate paradigm for building user tasks for pervasive environments is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Using SOA, user tasks are represented as an assembly of abstract components (i.e., services) without specifying their implementations, thus they should be resolved into concrete components. The task resolution involves automatic matching and selection of components across various devices. For this purpose, we present an approach that allows for each service of a user task, the selection of the best device and component by considering the user preferences, devices capabilities, services requirements and components preferences. Due to the dynamicity of pervasive environments, we are interested in the continuity of execution of user tasks. Therefore, we present an approach that allows components to monitor locally or remotely the changes of properties, which depend on. We also considered the adaptation of user tasks to cope with the dynamicity of pervasive environments. To overcome captured failures, the adaptation is carried out by a partial reselection of devices and components. However, in case of mismatching between an abstract user task and a concrete level, we propose a structural adaptation approach by injecting some defined adaptation patterns, which exhibit an extra-functional behavior. We also propose an architectural design of a middleware allowing the task's resolution, monitoring of the environment and the task adaptation. We provide implementation details of the middleware's components along with evaluation results

The model- and component-based development approach has emerged as an attractive option for the development of Distributed Real-time Embedded (DRE) systems. In this thesis we target several issues such as modeling of legacy communication, extraction of end-to-end timing models and support for holistic response-time analysis of industrial component-based DRE systems. We introduce a new approach for modeling legacy network communication in component-based DRE systems. By introducing special-purpose components to encapsulate and abstract the communication protocols in DRE systems, we allow the use of legacy nodes and legacy protocols in a component- and model-based software engineering environment. The proposed approach also supports the state-of-the-practice development of component-based DRE systems. The Controller Area Network (CAN) is one of the widely used real-time networks in DRE systems especially in automotive domain. We identify that the existing analysis of CAN does not support common message transmission patterns which are implemented by some high-level protocols used in the industry. Consequently, we extend the existing analysis to facilitate the worst-case response-time computation of these transmission patterns. The extended analysis is generally applicable to any high-level protocol for CAN that uses periodic, sporadic, or both periodic and sporadic transmission of messages. Because an end-to-end timing model should be available to perform the holistic response-time analysis, we present a method to extract the end-to-end timing models from component-based DRE systems. In order to show the applicability of our modeling techniques and extended analysis, we provide a proof of concept by extending the existing industrial component model (Rubus Component Model), implementing the holistic response-time analysis along with the extended analysis of CAN in the industrial tool suite (Rubus-ICE), and conducting an automotive case study. / EEMDEF

This dissertation explores a new approach to construct tools in the domain of reverse engineering. The approach uses already available software components -- such as off-the-shelf components and integrated development environments -- as building blocks, combining and customizing them programmatically to realize the desired functional and non-functional requirements. This approach can be characterized as component-based tool-building, as opposed to traditional tool-building, which typically develops most of the tool's functionalities from scratch. The dissertation focuses on research tools that are constructed in a university or research lab (and then possibly evaluated in an industrial setting). Often the motivation to build a research tool is a proof-of-concept implementation. Tool-building is a necessary part of research -- but it is a costly one. Traditional approaches to tool building have resulted in tools that have a high degree of custom code and exhibit little reuse. This approach offers the most flexibility, but can be costly and can result in highly idiosyncratic tools that are difficult to use. To compensate for the drawbacks of building tools from scratch, researchers have started to reuse existing functionality, leading towards an approach that leverages components as building blocks. However, this emerging approach is pursued in an ad hoc manner reminiscent of craftsmanship rather than professional engineering. The goal of this dissertation is to advance the current state of component-based tool-building towards a more disciplined, predictable approach. To achieve this goal, the dissertation first summarizes and evaluates relevant tool-building experiences and case studies, and then distills these into practical advice in the form of lessons learned, and a process framework for tool builders to follow. The dissertation uniquely combines two areas, reverse engineering and software components. The former addresses the constructed tool's application domain, the latter forms the foundation of the tool-building approach. Since this dissertation mostly focuses on tools for reverse engineering, a thorough understanding of this application domain is necessary to elicit its requirements. This is accomplished with an in-depth literature survey, which synthesizes five major requirements. The elicited requirements are used as a yardstick for the evaluation of component-based tools and the proposed process framework. There are diverse kinds of software components that can be leveraged for component-based tool building. However, not all of these components are suitable for the proposed tool-building approach. To characterize the kinds of applicable components, the dissertation introduces a taxonomy to classify components. The taxonomy also makes it possible to reason about characteristics of components and how these characteristics affect the construction of tools. This dissertation introduces a catalog of components that are applicable for the proposed tool-building approach in the reverse engineering domain. Furthermore, it provides a detailed account of several case studies that pursue component-based tool-building. Six of these case studies represent the author's own tool-building experiences. They have been performed over a period of five years within the Adoption-Centric Reverse Engineering project at the University of Victoria. These case studies, along with relevant experiences reported by other researchers, constitute a body of valuable tool-building knowledge. This knowledge base provides the foundation for this dissertation's two most important contributions. First, it distills the various experiences -- the author's as well as others -- into ten lessons learned. The lessons cover important requirements for tools as uncovered by the literature survey. Addressing these requirements promises to result in better tools that are more likely to meet the needs of tool users. Second, the dissertation proposes a suitable process framework for component-based tool development that can be instantiated by tool builders. The process framework encodes desirable properties of a process for tool-building, while providing the necessary flexibility to account for the variations of individual tool-building projects.

This thesis introduces enhancements over an existing Component Oriented CASE Tool (CoseCase). Constraint checking facility is implemented for the connections provided in the tool: A user programmable set of rules governing the allowed connections among different modeling elements is added as a capability. The previous implementation of the tool did not consider the semantics behind the elements and their interconnection. Also related connection types are tested against cycle formations. Other aspects of the tool have been enhanced such as the dynamic graphical presentation of connection handles and connectors. Deleting a sub-tree from the design diagram is made operational besides the correction of faulty operating routines especially related to attaching new elements to the diagram.

From the earliest days of mass production in the automotive industry there has been a progressive move towards the use of flexible manufacturing systems that cater for product variants that meet market demands. In recent years this market has become more demanding with pressures from legislation, globalisation and increased customer expectations. This has lead to the current trends of mass customisation in production. In order to support this manufacturing systems are not only becoming more flexible† to cope with the increased product variants, but also more agile‡ such that they may respond more rapidly to market changes. Modularisation§ is widely used to increase the agility of automation systems, such that they may be more readily reconfigured¶. Also with globalisation into India and Asia semi-automatic machines (machines that interact with human operators) are more frequently used to reduce capital outlay and increase flexibility. There is an increasing need for tools and methodologies that support this in order to improve design robustness, reduce design time and gain a competitive edge in the market. The research presented in this thesis is built upon the work from COMPAG/COMPANION (COMponent- based Paradigm for AGile automation, and COmmon Model for PArtNers in automatION), and as part of the BDA (Business Driven Automation), SOCRADES (Service Oriented Cross-layer infrastructure for Distributed smart Embedded deviceS), and IMC-AESOP (ArchitecturE for Service- Oriented Process – monitoring and control) projects conducted at Loughborough University UK. This research details the design and implementation of a toolkit for building and simulating automation systems comprising components with behaviour described using Finite State Machines (FSM). The research focus is the development of the engineering toolkit that can support the automation system lifecycle from initial design through commissioning to maintenance and reconfiguration as well as the integration of a virtual human. This is achieved using a novel data structure that supports component definitions for control, simulation, maintenance and the novel integration of a virtual human into the automation system operation.

Current manufacturing automation systems (specifically the powertrain sector) have been facing challenges with constant pressures of globalisation, environmental concerns and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) innovations. These challenges instigate new demands for shorter product lifecycles and require customised products to be manufactured as efficiently as possible. Manufacturing systems must therefore be agile to remain competitive by supporting frequent reconfigurations involving distributed engineering activities.

La thèse s’inscrit dans le domaine de la modélisation et de la validation des systèmes modernes complexes. Les systèmes actuels sont en fait d’une complexité sans cesse croissante et formés de plus en plus de composants de natures différentes. Ceci rend leur processus de conception et de validation coûteux et difficile. Il semble être la simple façon permettant de faire face à cette hétérogénéité et à cette complexité est l’approche orientée composant. Suivant cette approche, le système est une entité formée par un ensemble des composants interconnectés. Les composants définissent une interface qui permet d’abstraire leur modèle interne (boîte noire), ce qui favorise la modularité et la réutilisation des composants. L’interaction entre ces composants se fait conformément à un ensemble des règles pré-établies, permettant ainsi d’avoir une vision globale de comportement du système. La conception ainsi que la validation des systèmes modernes reste alors problématique à cause de la nécessité de prendre en compte l’hétérogénéité des différents composants. Dans ce cadre, dans un premier temps, nous définirons un cadre formel générique dans lequel une large famille de formalismes de description de systèmes à base d’états peut être naturellement capturée. Ainsi, nous allons définir un ensemble de règles de composition permettant de mettre en correspondance les différents composants et ainsi de constituer un modèle global du système à concevoir. Dans un second temps, nous proposerons une approche de test d’intégration qui permet de valider le comportement d’un système complexe sous l’hypothèse que chaque composant est testé et validé. Cette approche vise à générer automatiquement des cas de test en s’appuyant sur un modèle global décrit dans notre framework du système sous test. / In spite of several decades of research, assuring the quality of software systems still represents a major and serious problem nowadays for the industry with respect to both results and costs. This thesis comes within the scope of a proposal centered on a generic unified framework for both complex software systems modeling and testing. The contribution of this paper is then twofold: first, it defines a unified framework for modelling generic components, as well as a formalization of integration rules to combine their behaviour. This is based on a coalgebraic definition of components, which is a categorical representation allowing the unification of a large family of formalisms for specifying state-based systems. Second, it studies compositional conformance testing i.e. checking whether an implementation made from correct interacting components combined with integration operators conforms to its specification

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:57:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo3240_1.pdf: 2429983 bytes, checksum: 9b9eff719ea26a708f6868c5df873358 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Universidade de Pernambuco / Um dos maiores desafios para a indústria de embarcados é fornecer produtos com alto nível de qualidade e funcionalidade, a um baixo custo e curto tempo de desenvolvimento, disponibilizando-o rapidamente ao mercado, aumentando assim, o retorno dos investimentos. Os requisitos de custo e tempo de desenvolvimento têm sido abordados com bastante êxito pela engenharia de software baseada em componentes (CBSE) aliada à técnica de reuso de componentes. No entanto, a utilização da abordagem CBSE sem as devidas verificações da qualidade dos componentes utilizados, pode trazer conseqüências catastróficas (Jezequel et al., 1997). A utilização de mecanismos apropriados de pesquisa, seleção e avaliação da qualidade de componentes são considerados pontos chave na adoção da abordagem CBSE. Diante do exposto, esta tese propõe uma Metodologia para Avaliação da Qualidade de Componentes de Software Embarcados sob diferentes aspectos. A idéia é solucionar a falta de consistência entre as normas ISO/IEC 9126, 14598 e 2500, incluindo o contexto de componente de software e estendendo-o ao domínio de sistemas embarcados. Estas normas provêem definições de alto nível para características e métricas para produtos de software, mas não provêem formas de usá-las efetivamente, tornando muito difícil aplicá-las sem adquirir mais informações de outras fontes. A Metodologia é composta de quatro módulos que se complementam em busca da qualidade, através de um processo de avaliação, um modelo de qualidade, técnicas de avaliação agrupadas por níveis de qualidade e uma abordagem de métricas. Desta forma, ela auxilia o desenvolvedor de sistemas embarcado no processo de seleção de componentes, avaliando qual componente melhor se enquadra nos requisitos do sistema. É utilizada por avaliadores terceirizados quando contratados por fornecedores a fim de obter credibilidade em seus componentes. A metodologia possibilita avaliar a qualidade do componente embarcado antes do mesmo ser armazenado em um sistema de repositório, especialmente no contexto do framework robusto para reuso de software, proposto por Almeida (Almeida, 2004)

In larger developments, a use of configuration management is crucial; the company UIQ Technology is no exception. The configuration management method controls how the flow within a software developer should go, so the configuration management method and code complexity is something that works affects each other. Therefore, you might be able to combine multiple configuration methods to try to use the best from each method to decrease code complexity. That is the goal of this thesis, to see if the COTS, Single repository or Component Based could combine with the UIQ method to decrease code complexity. This have been tested through theoretical use cases for each method and the conclusion of the study is that, Single repository and Component Based works best in the UIQ method. However, COTS is not suited for the UIQ method because of the need of secrecy for large parts of the UIQ platform. UIQ wants to do as much as possible in-house, rather than give it out to other third-party companies that they are not in absolute need of. Some improvements have been achieved throughout Single repository, that the other third-parties companies needs to be upto- date before starting development, that is something that have not been valued before.

The impact of computer programs in safety-critical systems has increased in the past decades and computer-based systems can now be found in a wide range of applications. A new approach for developing dependable systems is documenting all design rationale that affects safety using Intent Specifications. A recent approach for developing complex systems efficiently and in an upgradeable manner is Component-Based System Engineering. In this thesis, these approaches are combined in the development and upgrade of a Remote Robot Control Unit by using the tool SpecTRM. The case study showed that Intent Specifications and CBSE could successfully be combined. The tool SpecTRM was also studied during this work. It showed that traceability is of great importance during system upgrades. Since SpecTRM does not support formal verification of safety properties in design models, the SpecTRM-RL models were translated to Esterel code. Further analysis showed that functional verification can be efficient and useful when using the automatic model-checking tool available in Esterel Studio. This work also proposes a practical guideline for system upgrades in component-based systems, presented as the Sigma model. The work also showed some shortcomings. First of all, the tool SpecTRM is at an early development stage and not yet mature for industrial use. Secondly, neither of the two languages SpecTRM-RL and Esterel was expressive enough for some of the numerical computations and data-exchange structures needed for navigation in the system. Finally, the verifier was not able to prove any data properties since valued signals are abstracted into pure signals during verification in Esterel Studio.