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A novel requirement analysis approach for periodic control systems

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Abstract

Periodic control systems (PCSs) are widely used in real-time embedded system domain. However, traditional manual requirement analysis assumes the expert knowledge, which is laborious and error-prone. This paper proposes a novel requirement analysis approach, which supports the automated validation of the informal requirement specifications. Based on the normalized initial requirement documents, our approach can construct an intermediate SPARDL model with both formal syntax and semantics. To check the overall system behaviors, our approach can transform the SPARDL models into executable code for simulation. The derived prototype simulator from SPARDL models enables the testing-based system behavior validation. Moreover, our approach enables the analysis of the dataflow relations in SPARDL models. By revealing input/output and affecting relations, our dataflow analysis techniques can help software engineers to figure out the potential data dependencies between SPARDL modules. This is very useful for the module reuse when a new version of the system is developed. A study of our approach using an industry design demonstrates the practicality and effectiveness of our approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Trustworthy Computing, Software Engineering Institute, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Zheng Wang, Geguang Pu, Jiangwen Li, Yuxiang Chen, Yongxin Zhao, Mingsong Chen & Jifeng He

  2. Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing, 100080, China

    Zheng Wang & Bin Gu

  3. School of Computing, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 119077, Singapore

    Yongxin Zhao

  4. China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing, 100094, China

    Mengfei Yang

Authors
  1. Zheng Wang
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  2. Geguang Pu
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  3. Jiangwen Li
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  4. Yuxiang Chen
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  5. Yongxin Zhao
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  6. Mingsong Chen
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  7. Bin Gu
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  8. Mengfei Yang
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  9. Jifeng He
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geguang Pu.

Additional information

Zheng WANG received his BS in Software Engineering and PhD in Computer applied technique from East China Normal University. Now he is a software requirement engineer in the Software Development Department at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology. His main research topic focuses on the automatization and formalization of requirement analysis for embedded control software. His work also relates with automatic test case generation.

Geguang PU holds a PhD in mathematics from Peking University, Beijing, China. Currently, he works as an associate professor at Software Engineering Institute of East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. His research interests include program analysis, formal modeling of business processes, automated testing, and verification. From 2006, he served as PC members in a number of international academic conferences, including ICFEM10/11, UTP10/11/12, ICTAC12 etc. Recently Dr. Pu uses the lightweight formal model to analyze timed-driven control software, including requirement analysis and automated test data generation.

Jianwen LI is a PhD graduate student supervised by Jifeng HE and Geguang PU in East China Normal University. Now he is in University Rice as a visiting student. His research topics are LTL model checking, automata theory, and data flow analysis.

Yuxiang CHEN is a MS graduate student supervised by Jifeng HE and Geguang PU in East China Normal University. His research topics are requirement analysis and automatic testing.

Yongxin ZHAO holds a PhD in technology of computer application from East China Normal University. He is a research fellow at School of Computing of National University of Singapore, Singapore. His research interests include program analysis and verification, semantics theory, web services and formal methods and he owns more than 15 referred publications.

Mingsong CHEN received the BS and ME from Department of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China, in 2003 and 2006 respectively, and the PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Florida, in 2010. He is currently an associate professor with the Software Engineering Institute of East China Normal University. His research interests are in the area of design automation of embedded systems, formal verification techniques, and software engineering.

Bin GU received the BS and MS from Department of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 1991 and 1994 respectively. He is a senior research fellow in Beijing Institute of Control Engineering. His research interests are in the area of development of embedded systems and cybernation.

Mengfei YANG received the BS from Northwestern Polytechnical University in 1982, the MS from Beijing Institute of Control Engineering in 1985, and the PhD from Tsinghua University in 2005. He is a principle research fellow in China Academy of Space Technology. His research interests are in the area of spacecraft design, cybernation, and trustable embedded systems.

Jifeng HE is currently a professor of computer science at East China Normal University (ECNU). He is also the Dean of Software Engineering Institute, ECNU. He is an Academician of Chinese Academy of sciences. He was appointed as the Chief Scientist for several projects of NSFC and 973 program. And he was also appointed as the leader of the creative research group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In recent years, he has also been working on the mathematical model about the co-design of software and hardware, his work focuses on design of real-time embedded systems and Cyber Physical system.

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Wang, Z., Pu, G., Li, J. et al. A novel requirement analysis approach for periodic control systems. Front. Comput. Sci. 7, 214–235 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-013-2008-1

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