From real-time design model to RTOS-specific models: a model-driven methodology

Abstract

The refinement of a real-time operating system (RTOS)-independent real-time design model to a RTOS-specific model is a critical phase in a model-based approach. Model-based approaches allow early verification of the timing properties at the design level. At this phase, if the hardware architecture is supposed to be known, the technological platform is not defined. Hence, some assumptions on the platform are implicitly made to achieve timing verification on the one hand and to keep RTOS- independence of the design model on the other hand. However, at the implementation level, these assumptions may be not implementable for the target RTOS. In this paper, we propose a design refinement toward implementation methodology (DRIM) to address the refinement problem. The proposed approach guides the designer for the selection of the appropriate RTOS when deployment problems are raised. Nevertheless, the mapping phase generates the appropriate RTOS-specific model. A robotic case study shows the applicability of the proposed approach.