skip to main content
research-article

An operational semantics for Simulink's simulation engine

Published:12 June 2012Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

The industrial tool Matlab/Simulink is widely used in the design of embedded systems. The main feature of this tool is its ability to model in a common formalism the software and its physical environment. This makes it very useful for validating the design of embedded software using numerical simulation. However, the formal verification of such models is still problematic as Simulink is a programming language for which no formal semantics exists. In this article, we present an operational semantics of a representative subset of Simulink which includes both continuous-time and discrete-time blocks. We believe that this work gives a better understanding of Simulink and it defines the foundations of a general framework to apply formal methods on Simulink's high level descriptions of embedded systems.

References

  1. A. Agrawal, G. Simon, and G. Karsai. Semantic translation of Simulink/Stateflow models to hybrid automata using graph transformations. ENCS, 109:43--56, 2004. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. R. Alur, A. Kanade, S. Ramesh, and K. C. Shashidhar. Symbolic analysis for improving simulation coverage of Simulink/Stateflow models. In EMSOFT, pages 89--98. ACM, 2008. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. J. Bertrane, P. Cousot, R. Cousot, J. Feret, L. Mauborgne, A. Miné, and X. Rival. Static analysis by abstract interpretation of embedded critical software. In UML and Formal Methods. IEEE, 2010.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. P. Caspi, A. Curic, A. Maignan, C. Sofronis, and S. Tripakis. Translating discrete-time Simulink to Lustre. ACM Transaction on Embedded Computing Systems, 4(4):779--818, 2003. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. A. Chapoutot and M. Martel. Abstract Simulation: a static analysis of Simulink models. In ICESS, pages 83--92. IEEE Press, 2009. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  6. C. Chen, J. Dong, and J. Sun. A formal framework for modeling and validating simulink diagrams. Formal Aspects of Computing, 2009.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  7. P. Cousot. Integrating physical systems in the static analysis of embedded control software. In APLAS, volume 3780 of LNCS, pages 135--138. Springer, 2005. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  8. P. Cousot and R. Cousot. Abstract Interpretation Frameworks. Journal of Logic and Computation, 2(4):511--547, 1992.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  9. B. Denckla and P. Mosterman. Formalizing causal block diagrams for modeling a class of hybrid dynamic systems. In IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2005.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  10. E. Goubault, M. Martel, and S. Putot. Static analysis-based validation of floating-point computations. In Numerical Software with Result Verification, volume 2991 of LNCS, pages 306--313. Springer, 2003.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. E. Hairer, S. Norsett, and G. Wanner. Solving Ordinary Differential Equations I: Nonstiff Problems. Springer-Verlag, 2nd edition, 1993. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  12. A. Kanade, R. Alur, F. Ivancic, S. Ramesh, S. Sankaranarayanan, and K. C. Shashidhar. Generating and analyzing symbolic traces of Simulink/Stateflow models. In CAV, volume 5643 of LNCS, 2009. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  13. C. Le Guernic and A. Girard. Zonotope-hyperplane intersection for hybrid systems reachability analysis. In HSCC'08, volume 4981 of LNCS, pages 215--228. Springer, 2008. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  14. E. A. Lee and H. Zheng. Operational semantics of hybrid systems. In HSCC, number 3414 in LNCS. Springer, 2005. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  15. G. D. Plotkin. A structural approach to operational semantics. Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming, 60--61:17--139, 2004.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  16. L. Shampine and M. Reichelt. The MATLAB ODE Suite. Journal on Sci. Comput., 18(1):1--22, 1997. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  17. L. Shampine, I. Gladwell, and S. Thompson. Solving ODEs with MATLAB. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  18. J. Sifakis. A vision for computer science -- the system perspective. Central European Journal of Computer Science, 1(1):108--116, 2011.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  19. A. Tiwari. Formal semantics and analysis methods for Simulink Stateflow models. Technical report, SRI Intl., 2002.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  20. A. Tiwari, N. Shankar, and J. Rushby. Invisible formal methods for embedded control systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 91(1):29--39, 2003.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  21. F. Zhang, M. Yeddanapudi, and P. Mosterman. Zero-crossing location and detection algorithms for hybrid system simulation. In 17th IFAC World Congress, pages 7967--7972, 2008.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref

Index Terms

  1. An operational semantics for Simulink's simulation engine

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Login options

          Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

          Sign in

          Full Access

          • Published in

            cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
            ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 47, Issue 5
            LCTES '12
            MAY 2012
            152 pages
            ISSN:0362-1340
            EISSN:1558-1160
            DOI:10.1145/2345141
            Issue’s Table of Contents
            • cover image ACM Conferences
              LCTES '12: Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED International Conference on Languages, Compilers, Tools and Theory for Embedded Systems
              June 2012
              153 pages
              ISBN:9781450312127
              DOI:10.1145/2248418

            Copyright © 2012 ACM

            Publisher

            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 12 June 2012

            Check for updates

            Qualifiers

            • research-article

          PDF Format

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader
          About Cookies On This Site

          We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

          Learn more

          Got it!