Combination of MATLAB/Simulink Models and Code Libraries by Extended UML

Abstract

To improve development efficiency, model based techniques have been increasingly applied in embedded systems. For example, MATLAB/Simulink is regularly used for expressing physical phenomena, including signal processing and control systems. While it is very effective in these areas, it lacks object oriented capabilities that have been proven to increase development efficiency in related domains. UML is effective for descriptions of structures using object oriented abstraction, however it cannot express physical phenomenon easily. Furthermore, in conventional software engineering,code-libraries are regularly used to deliver significant development efficiency improvements across a wide range of domains, however neither MATLAB/Simulink nor UML include code-libraries. In this paper, we propose an extended UML to combine an UML model, MATLAB/Simulink models and code-libraries in a single system so as to realize efficient development. In the extended UML, an entire system is defined as a structure that consists of model parts. Each model part is integrated using UML. After generating source codes using UML, additional source code details are added from MATLAB/Simulink models and code-libraries. We demonstrate the efficiency of the extended UML with an experiment that shows behavioral equivalence between the system created with the extended UML and the original simulation model.