Mission control with the UML and SDL formalisms

The mission control system for an AUV is a sub-system which is integrated in the overall software development but in many cases the formalism used is completely different from the software design formalism. A generic behavior is associated with a set of functionalities which is the core language for the mission programming. This effort of generalisation is important to provide an abstraction level of the mission control environment. Following these guidelines, our approach is based on a behavior model coupled to an object software design. The object design is accepted like an efficient concept for the management of different levels of abstraction with a high level of reusability. The mission control system will not become a particular language but a specialized object framework without a particular target language. The mission control framework is integrated in the software design methodology of the overall AUV development like a special package. The static structure system is described by class diagrams. The cooperation between the different objects in the system is represented by sequence and collaboration diagrams. We specify the behavior of the active objects through SDL processes which have very precise semantics. The sequence diagram, enables us to add a graphical representation of the dynamic behavior of the system to the SDL descriptions. One of the major benefits with a design notation like SDL that has well-defined and complete semantics, is the possibility to test the application already in the design activity. The formal description of the SDL processes behavior then allows the test by simulation and its validation inside a software environment, like Telelogic-TAU. First, we describe the global object model. The software is then created for the mission code generation and finally the framework is implemented on the embedded targets.