Transforming UML models to colored petri nets models using graph grammars

In this paper we propose an approach for transforming UML statechart and collaboration diagrams to colored Petri nets models. This transformation aims to bridge the gap between informal notation (UML diagrams) and more formal notation (colored Petri nets models) for analysis purpose. It produces highly-structured, graphical, and rigorously-analyzable models that facilitates early detection of errors like deadlock, livelock, etc ... The approach is based on graph transformation since the input and output of the transformation process are graphs. The meta-modeling tool ATOM
³
is used. An example illustrates our approach.