AN OBJECT-ORIENTED MODELING AND SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT FOR REACTIVE SYSTEMS-DEVELOPMENT

An environment to support the modeling, analysis, simulation, and deve lopment of state transition models, SMOOCHES (State Machines for Objec t-Oriented Concurrent Hierarchical Engineering Specifications), is pre sented. SMOOCHES allows the hierarchical construction, analysis, and s imulation of state transition models in an object-oriented distributed environment. Statecharts (see Harel 1987b), a powerful mechanism for stare transition specification, are fundamental to the development of SMOOCHES. To assist in the specification of hierarchical state transit ion models for distributed and reactive systems, statecharts are exten ded by introducing the concept of exit-safe states. SMOOCHES allows th e specification of objects in the system with hierarchical state trans ition models and the derivation of new classes of objects through inhe ritance. A graphical monitoring system has been developed to represent and simulate the object state life cycles and monitor event generatio ns. The example presented illustrates the modeling and simulation of d ifferent state life cycles of an assembly robot.