A Model-based Integration and Testing Method to Reduce System Development Effort

New methods and techniques are needed to reduce the very costly integration and test effort (in terms of lead time, costs, resources) in the development of high-tech multi-disciplinary systems. To facilitate this effort reduction, we propose a method called model-based integration. This method allows to integrate formal executable models of system components that are not yet physically realized with available realizations of other components. The combination of models and realizations is then used for early analysis of the integrated system by means of validation, verification, and testing. This analysis enables early detection and prevention of problems that would otherwise occur during real integration, resulting in a significant reduction of effort invested in the the real integration and test phases. This paper illustrates how models of components, developed for model-based integration, can be used for automated model-based testing, which allows time-efficient determination of the conformance of component realizations with respect to their requirements. The combination of model-based integration and model-based testing is practically illustrated in a realistic industrial case study. Results obtained from this study encourage further research on model-based integration as a prominent method to reduce the integration and test effort.     

一种共性服务接入与集成方法

随着互联网的高速发展,各领域企业的信息化程度越来越高,快速开发高质量、易维护的企业业务信息系统是必然的趋势.由于不同企业在搭建业务信息系统时存在一些十分相似的功能需求,为了高效而有保障地满足信息化系统的建设,信息系统的开发人员选择使用第三方企业开发的服务并以松耦合的方式整合其共性服务的开发.开发人员从而可以将更多的精力投入于其核心商业逻辑的构建.然而,众多的基于第三方提供的各种服务给系统开发人员带来了适配难、质量无保障等困难,极大地阻碍了业务信息系统的建设.针对上述问题,提出了一种业务信息系统共性服务接入与集成方法.该方法集成了搭建业务信息系统所共性需求的各种第三方共性服务,为各领域、各行业的业务信息系统提供具有统一接口格式的、可互联互通的,且支持服务保障和服务运营支撑功能的可定制集成服务的共性服务基础设施.详细阐述了该方法的功能、结构与特点,提出了一种共性服务组合流程抽象描述语言以系统地描述与开发,并举例深入阐述系统的特点.     

Providing Database Interoperability through Object-Oriented Language Constructs

Seamless access to resources and services provided by distributed, autonomous, and heterogeneous systems is central to many advanced applications. Building an integrated system to provide such uniform access and cooperation among underlying heterogeneous systems is both an increasing necessity and a formidable challenge. An important component of such a complex integrated system is a unified language that serves both as a data definition and as a data manipulation tool. Special requirements are posed in the instance of an integrated system which includes database systems among its components. In this paper, we introduce the necessary constructs that an object-oriented programming language should provide for being adopted as the language of the integrated system in such a setting. We adopt a modular, object-based approach to integration. Each component system that joins the integration provides a set of basic classes and pre-defined basic methods. We show how the class hierarchy of the system can be used to provide a uniform way of mapping database resources to basic classes and associative queries to basic methods. A view mechanism is introduced that supports the integration of the basic classes and provides a means of expressing relationships among them and resolving any potential conflicts. The view mechanism is implemented by extending the standard class constructors of an object-oriented language to support the definition of virtual classes. The language provides workflow constructs for defining the structure of programs and for attaining synchronization among concurrently executing programs. Furthermore, atomicity and concurrency control information is included in the form of consistency assertions as part of the interface of each basic method.     

Integrating relational and object-oriented database systems using a metaclass concept

This paper presents a specific approach of integrating a relational database system into a federated database system. The underlying database integration process consist of three steps: first, the external database systems have to be connected to the integrated database system environment and the external data models have to be mapped into a canonical data model. This step is often called syntactic transformation including structural enrichment and leads to component schemas for each external DBMS. Second, the resulting schemas from the first step are used to construct export schemas which are then integrated into global, individual schemas or views in the third step. In this paper we focus on the first step for relational databases, i.e., the connection of a relational database system and the mapping of the relational model into a canonical data model. We take POSTGRES as the relational database system and the object-oriented federated database system VODAK as the integration platform which provides the open, object-oriented data model as the canonical data model for the integration. We show different variations of mapping the relational model. By exploiting the metaclass concept provided by VML, the modelling language of VODAK, we show how to tailor VML such that the canonical data model meets the requirements of integrating POSTGRES into the global database system VODAK in an efficient way.     

异构分布对象系统集成模型研究

分布对象计算技术为用户提供了方便的分布应用开发工具。然而,随着分布对象计算技术的应用和发展,异构分布对象系统的集成也正在成为急需解决的问题。用户对异构分布对象系统的集成有各种各样的需求,因此提供异构分布对象系统集成的工具也多种多样。文中将现有的异构分布对象系统的集成工具归纳为四种集成模型,并在对它们进行比较的基础上结合应用需求讨论了各种集成模型的适用场合。     

A framework for quality assessment of just-in-time requirements: the case of open source feature requests

Until now, quality assessment of requirements has focused on traditional up-front requirements. Contrasting these traditional requirements are just-in-time (JIT) requirements, which are by definition incomplete, not specific and might be ambiguous when initially specified, indicating a different notion of "correctness." We analyze how the assessment of JIT requirements quality should be performed based on the literature of traditional and JIT requirements. Based on that analysis, we have designed a quality framework for JIT requirements and instantiated it for feature requests in open source projects. We also indicate how the framework can be instantiated for other types of JIT requirements. We have performed an initial evaluation of our framework for feature requests with eight practitioners from the Dutch agile community, receiving overall positive feedback. Subsequently, we have used our framework to assess 550 feature requests originating from three Open Source Software systems (Netbeans, ArgoUML and Mylyn Tasks). In doing so, we obtain a view on the feature request quality for the three open source projects. The value of our framework is threefold: (1) it gives an overview of quality criteria that are applicable to feature requests (at creation time or JIT); (2) it serves as a structured basis for teams that need to assess the quality of their JIT requirements; and (3) it provides a way to get an insight into the quality of JIT requirements in existing projects.     

持续集成测试用例集优化综述研究

基于互联网的软件开发要求产品快速迭代,同时保持产品的质量,其关键的环节就是持续集成.持续集成通过自动化测试来保证集成到主干的代码质量.持续集成时的测试用例选择是一个非常有挑战性的问题.如果运行所有的测试用例,需要消耗大量的计算资源,并造成测试反馈周期过长.如果选择的测试用例集不合适,又不足以覆盖必要的测试代码以保证待集成代码的质量.持续集成测试用例集优化的目的是平衡测试资源和测试质量,在尽可能不影响测试质量的情况下,减少持续集成的资源需求.对近年来国内外学者在该领域的研究工作进行了系统的分析、提炼和总结.为此,首先从研究主题、影响因子、研究方法、研究对象以及性能评价等方面提出5个研究问题;然后从电子文献数据库搜索最近10年的研究工作,经过仔细审查和筛选后选择39篇文献作为研究对象;最后,从选择文献中收集数据,通过定量分析和可视化展示来回答提出的研究问题.总的来说,回顾了持续集成测试用例集优化的研究进展,为该领域的研究者提供了一些有用的发现,并总结了面临的问题和挑战.     

Survey on mechatronic engineering: A focus on design methods and product models

According to the principles of concurrent engineering and integrated design, engineers intend to develop a mechatronic system with a high level integration (functional and physical integrations) based on a well-organised design method. As a result, two main categories of issues have been pointed out: the process-based problems and the design data-related problems. Several approaches to overcome these issues have been put forward. To solve process-based problems, a dynamic perspective is generally used to present how collaboration can be improved during the mechatronic design. For design data-related problems, solutions generally come from product models and how to structure and store the data thanks to the functionality of data and documents management of Product Lifecycle Management systems. To be able to assess design methods and product models, some criteria are proposed in the paper and used to evaluate their added value on integrated design of mechatronic system. After this assessment, main outcomes which focus on the combination of design method and product model for improving the design of mechatronic system are finally discussed.     

RCM模型决策系统设计

对RCM模型决策系统进行了需求分析,确定了进行模型辅助RCM决策所需的信息,数据处理方式以及如何利用模型辅助决策。所需的信息包括故障信息、维修信息和费用信息等,数据处理主要是对原始故障及维修数据的统计分析,模型主要用于计算最佳工作间隔期和评估工作组合。设计了RCM模型决策系统框架结构及详细流程,改变了以前RCM分析的工作方式,实现了主客观相结合,加强了数据审核,为RCM分析质量提供了保证。提出了系统实现的关键技术,给出了可供参考的实现方法。     

CIM—the integration of manufacturing and information systems

The integration of computers within the manufacturing environment has long been a method of enhancing productivity. Their use in many facets of a manufacturing enterprise has given industries the ability to deliver low-cost, high-quality competitive products. As computer technology advances, we find more and more uses for new hardware and software in the enterprise. Over a period of time, we have seen many “islands” of computer integration. Distinct, fully functional hardware and software installations are a common base for many industries. Unfortunately, these islands are just that, separate, distinct and functional but non-integrated. The lack of integration within these information systems make it difficult for end users to see the same manufacturing data. We are finding the need for a “single image” real-time information system to provide the enterprise with the data that is required to plan, justify, design, manufacture and deliver products to the customer. Unfortunately, many industries have a large installed base of hardware and software. Replacement of current systems is not a cost-justified business decision. An alternative would be the migration of current systems to a more integrated solution. The migration to a computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)-based architecture would provide that single image real-time information system.

The effort and skills necessary for the implementation of a CIM-based architecture would require active participation from two key organizations: Manufacturing and information systems (I/S). The manufacturing engineers, process engineers and other manufacturing resource would be the cornerstone for obtaining requirements. The ability to effectively use I/S is a critical success factor in the implementation of CIM. I/S has to be viewed as an equal partner, not just as a service organization. Manufacturing management needs to understand the justification process of integrating computer systems and the “real” cost of integration versus the cost of non-integrated manufacturing systems. The active participation of both organizations during all phases of CIM implementation will result in a effective and useful integrated information system.     

User-Centric Learning and Evaluation of Interactive Segmentation Systems

Many successful applications of computer vision to image or video manipulation are interactive by nature. However, parameters of such systems are often trained neglecting the user. Traditionally, interactive systems have been treated in the same manner as their fully automatic counterparts. Their performance is evaluated by computing the accuracy of their solutions under some fixed set of user interactions. In this paper, we study the problem of evaluating and learning interactive segmentation systems which are extensively used in the real world. The key questions in this context are how to measure (1) the effort associated with a user interaction, and (2) the quality of the segmentation result as perceived by the user. We conduct a user study to analyze user behavior and answer these questions. Using the insights obtained from these experiments, we propose a framework to evaluate and learn interactive segmentation systems which brings the user in the loop. The framework is based on the use of an active robot user??a simulated model of a human user. We show how this approach can be used to evaluate and learn parameters of state-of-the-art interactive segmentation systems. We also show how simulated user models can be integrated into the popular max-margin method for parameter learning and propose an algorithm to solve the resulting optimisation problem.     

Continuous-time system modelling using the weighted-parabola-overlapping numerical integration method

Numerical integration is a widely used method in scientific areas where the uniform integral interval can be selected optionally. Simpson integration and Newton-Cotes formula, for example, are available in many textbooks and software. However, in system science, the data may come from practical sampled continuous systems. Sometimes the sampling interval is non-uniform and the integration values at each sampled point are needed. For example, when the parameters of a continuous system model need to be estimated by least squares, we want the integration value at each sampling point. In that case, trapezoidal numerical integration is mostly adopted, which has only first-order algebraic accuracy (the straight line). When sampled points are fewer, the errors of numerical integration such as noise can interfere with the modelling. We propose a weighted-parabola-overlapping (WPO) numerical integration method, which possesses third-order algebraic accuracy and needs nearly the same computation of second-order power function curve fitting (the parabola). The proposed method is applicable to non-uniformly sampled systems. As a specific case, it is as adequate as uniformly sampled systems and the expression becomes very simple. Two examples are given: one is the identification of a non-uniformly sampled system by least-squares (LS), the other is local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) measurement with positron emission tomography (PET) by the integrated projection (IP) technique. Both are non-uniformly sampled systems and have very few data.     

A framework for the operationalization of monitoring in business intelligence requirements engineering

Business intelligence (BI) is perceived as a critical activity for organizations and is increasingly discussed in requirements engineering (RE). RE can contribute to the successful implementation of BI systems by assisting the identification and analysis of such systems’ requirements and the production of the specification of the system to be. Within RE for BI systems, we focus in this paper on the following questions: (i) how the expectations of a BI system’s stakeholders can be translated into accurate BI requirements, and (ii) how do we operationalize specifically these requirements in a system specification? In response, we define elicitation axes for the documentation of BI-specific requirements, give a list of six BI entities that we argue should be accounted for to operationalize business monitoring, and provide notations for the modeling of these entities. We survey important contributions of BI to define elicitation axes, adapt existing BI notations issued from RE literature, and complement them with new BI-specific notations. Using the i* framework, we illustrate the application of our proposal using a real-world case study.     

Integrating rotation from angular velocity

The integration of the rotation from a given angular velocity is often required in practice. The present paper explores how the choice of the parametrization of rotation, when employed in conjuction with different numerical time-integration schemes, effects the accuracy and the computational efficiency. Three rotation parametrizations - the rotational vector, the Argyris tangential vector and the rotational quaternion - are combined with three different numerical time-integration schemes, including classical explicit Runge-Kutta method and the novel midpoint rule proposed here. The key result of the study is the assessment of the integration errors of various parametrization-integration method combinations. In order to assess the errors, we choose a time-dependent function corresponding to a rotational vector, and derive the related exact time-dependent angular velocity. This is then employed in the numerical solution as the data. The resulting numerically integrated approximate rotations are compared with the analytical solution. A novel global solution error norm for discrete solutions given by a set of values at chosen time-points is employed. Several characteristic angular velocity functions, resulting in small, finite and fast oscillating rotations are studied.     

核电厂非安全级DCS集成的质量管理

作为核电厂重要的仪控系统,非安全级分散控制系统(DCS)具有功能复杂、内外部接口众多的特点。为了确保核电厂DCS在设计、制造、测试和交付等过程的质量,首先对非安全级DCS的集成过程进行了研究。研究过程采用了IEC 61513标准下系统安全生命周期的模型,分析了在安全生命周期中各阶段执行的相关活动。通过功能安全管理概念的运用,将DCS集成过程的技术管理要求与我国现行的核电厂质量保证要求建立相应的关联,使得两者体系上的融合成为可能。详细探讨了安全生命周期中技术管理要求与核电站质量保证要求之间的对应关系,使得核电厂的质量保证要求能够具体化,同时符合数字化的核电厂仪控系统的特性。最后对非安全级DCS集成质量的管理措施进行了初步的研究。根据核电厂非安全级DCS在工程实施中有别于成熟仪控系统面临的问题,提出了质量管理方法。该方法对于今后新建电厂,特别是新堆型的工程实施具有参考意义。     

Construction method of shop-floor digital twin based on MBSE

Digital twin (DT) technology is essential for achieving the fusion of virtual-real cyber-physical systems. Academics and companies have made great strides in the theoretical research and case studies of constructing the shop-floor digital twin (SDT), which is the premise of applying DT technology on the shop floor. A shop floor is a large complex system that involves many elements including people, machines, materials, methods, and the environment and processes, such as the technical flow, business process, logistics, and control flow. However, most of the developed cases lack a hierarchical, structured and modularized implementation framework for the development of an SDT system, which leads to problems such as a low reuse rate of the system blocks, lack of scalability, and high upgrade and maintenance costs. In response to these issues, we propose a construction method of the DT for the shop floor based on model-based systems engineering from the perspective of the system. In this method, a comprehensive DT model for the shop floor is gradually constructed by using system modeling language, the modeling method “MagicGrid,” and the “V model” of systems engineering. The model includes four dimensions of the shop-floor requirements, structure, behavior, and parameters, as well as three stages (the problem domain, solution domain, and implementation domain), and connects nine steps of the “V model,” including the system requirements, system architecture, subsystem implementation, subsystem integration, and system verification. Then, based on an example of a real NC machining shop floor, subsystems including a visualization system, synchronization system, and simulation system, are discussed. Finally, the functions of the integrated systems are verified based on the requirements, including the real-time synchronization of “man, machine, material, and method” and the transient simulation in real time. The numerical indicators of the integrated system are verified, including the model completeness and synchronization timeliness.     

Assessing pollution risks to water supply intakes using geographical information systems (GIS)

The process of pollution risk assessment requires the assimilation of data that are spatially variable in nature, making geographical information systems (GIS) an ideal tool for such assessments. Over half of Britain's drinking water is obtained from surface water abstractions, many of which are situated in upland areas. In order to optimise the quality of abstracted waters it is important to assess the possible risks of pollution upstream from the point of abstraction. This paper describes the use of the PC-based WINGS™ and MapInfo Professional™ geographical information systems in the evolution of a risk assessment methodology to assess catchment risk. The work illustrates how such technology can assist in environmental decision-making to optimise the quality of drinking water supplies and enhance treatment efficiencies. Examples are given showing how raster and vector-based data can be used within a GIS framework to produce maps indicating areas of potential hazard to water quality, and coupled with existing models to predict and quantify risk frequency and impact. GIS techniques are further utilised in the formulation of a raw water monitoring programme to assist in intake operation and land-use planning in the catchment. The availability of suitable digital data was found to be variable, and some problems encountered in their integration and implementation within the system framework were resolved. Comment is given on the suitability and relative performance of the two software packages in the assessment of catchment risk. The work was carried out on a medium specification desktop PC, and therefore has the potential to be utilised across the intranet of a large utility company.     

Specifying information systems for business process integration – A management perspective*

Supply chain management and customer relationship management are concepts for optimizing the provision of goods to customers. Information sharing and information estimation are key tools used to implement these two concepts. The reduction of delivery times and stock levels can be seen as the main managerial objectives of an integrative supply chain and customer relationship management. To achieve this objective, business processes need to be integrated along the entire supply chain including the end consumer. Information systems form the backbone of any business process integration. The relevant information system architectures are generally well-understood, but the conceptual specification of information systems for business process integration from a management perspective, remains an open methodological problem. To address this problem, we will show how customer relationship management and supply chain management information can be integrated at the conceptual level in order to provide supply chain managers with relevant information. We will further outline how the conceptual management perspective of business process integration can be supported by deriving specifications for enabling information system from business objectives. This work has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung), record no. 01HW0196.     

基于Web的教学质量评价系统的设计与实现

为解决高校教师教学质量评价的网络化问题,在综合考虑数字化校园建设要求基础上,提出了基于Web的高校教师教学质量评价系统的功能要求和体系结构,设计了后台数据库系统和功能模块,保证了系统的实用性、兼容性和可扩展性.研究了面向数字化校园综合管理平台的公共数据采集技术和系统安全设计,有效地解决了教师教学质量评价系统与其它业务系统之间的融合问题和系统安全问题.测试结果表明了系统的有效性.     

Verification framework and algorithms for integrating information distribution systems

When two competitive companies merge into one bigger company, reusing existing technical resources in each company to form a common technology becomes a priority integration task. One of the specific problems occurring during integration is the resulting integrated scopes' requirements specifications become faulty while integrating two sets of software systems from two participating companies. The integrated scopes refer to the domains of information software systems, business policies, business processes, business rules, interface functions, and data that are being integrated in each participating company.Using a Transition-Directed Graph (TDG) representation, specified requirements involved in the integration will be represented in a form of TDG to be analyzed for faults. Five efficient algorithms are developed to identify faults in the resulting TDG formatted requirement specifications. Four correction algorithms are also developed to correct detected faults found in the TDG formatted requirements specifications.