Model Driven Engineering with Capella and AADL

The development of real time embedded equipments is a challenging task that requires the elaboration of multiple models in several domains, notably system, electronics and software, spanning a large spectrum of multiple abstraction levels and viewpoints: structural, behavioral, dependability, etc. These models serve various purposes: specification, design, evaluation or verification and validation. Today, no single modeling language and environment covers all these aspects. While Capella – an open source modeling language and environment for system engineering developed by Thales – fits well to the most early stages of the development process, AADL – the Architecture Analysis and Design Language defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers – provides powerful capabilities to describe and analyze the design artifacts of the software point of view that appear during the latest phase of the design. This is why they have both been selected in the project INGEQUIP of IRT Saint Exupéry. While using different modeling languages for different purpose is perfectly acceptable in a development process, it is important to guarantee that information remain consistent across all models. This is why building a formalized bridge between Capella and AADL is an essential piece of INGEQUIP process. In this paper, after an introduction to the context of INGEQUIP, the high level semantics of Capella and AADL are compared. The mapping used in INGEQUIP between Capella physical models and AADL abstract models is then described. The whole approach is illustrated by some elements coming from the design of TwIRTee – the robotic demonstrator of INGEQUIP – before concluding.