Deterministic UML models for interconnected activities and state machines

Abstract

The interconnection between UML activities and state machines enables the comprehensible modeling of systems based on data flows and events. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to guarantee a deterministic behavior for models in which activity and state diagrams work together. At first, deterministic models are ensured independently within both diagrams by using our UML profile for Deterministic Models for signal processing embedded systems (DMOSES). The relationship between executions of the model elements is analyzed according to interconnections of the activity and state diagrams described in the UML standard. To avoid nondeterministic models, we define the execution behavior of cooperating activities and state machines. The interconnection of both diagrams and their corresponding behavior are illustrated in an embedded system example that uses parallel processing for data as well as for events. Our approach simplifies the development of deterministic embedded systems by code generation from UML models. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.