Empirical-evolution of frameworks supporting co-simulation tool-chain development

Abstract

Co-simulation has been proposed as a method for facilitating integrated simulation of multi-domain models of Cyber-physical Systems (CPS). To ensure that co-simulations are well-managed, concerns beyond technical mechanisms for co-simulation also need to be addressed during tool-chain development. In this paper, an evolution of two frameworks supporting co-simulation tool-chain development is first introduced. Drawing upon the empirical findings from an initial framework SPIT developed based on model-driven techniques, we develop a service-oriented framework, SPIRIT based on model-driven and tool-integration techniques. Moreover, we propose a 3D viewpoint based method to formalize concept models of co-simulation tool-chains. In order to evaluate the evolution, we use visualizations of related concept models to compare tool-chains developed based on these two frameworks.