Simulation: Past, Present and Future With Cameo Simulation Toolkit

Simulation: Past, Present and Future
With Cameo Simulation Toolkit
SysML Seminar Japan
January 20, 2011

Agenda
• Qualifications in the Simulation Domain
• Simulation Defined
• Simulation, a Brief History
• Simulation Applications
• Executable Models:
– Real World Applications with Cameo Simulation Toolkit, Codeless
Simulation Now a Reality!
• The Future of Simulation
• Live Demonstration

Our Simulation Qualifications and Experience
• Purdue University Computer and Electrical Engineering
– Robotics
• Eaton Corporation / Contel Federal Systems – CATIS/SID 88
– Testing of Satellite Reconnaissance System, Network Simulation
• NASA JPL – US Army ASAS/ENCE Program
– Communication Message Processing
• Motorola
– International Cellular Telephone Behavior and Testing
• Magnavox
– Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System
• Naval Warfare Assessment Division
– War Gaming, WAM - Warfare Assessment Modeling, BFTT – Battle Force Tactical Trainer
• Texas Instruments
– Harm Missile Simulated Testing System
• Bridge Medical Systems
– Infusion pump included simulation of system components that were delayed by manufacturing
• No Magic
– Part of task force determining capabilities and functionality of Cameo Simulation Toolkit

No Magic’s Qualifications
• Executive Leadership Team with extensive simulation background
– 30+ Years of simulation experience
– U.S. Government NSA Simulation
– Involved with SCS, the Society for Modeling & Simulation Intl
• OMG - Co-Chair SysML Specification
• OMG - Co-Chair UPDM Specification
• First company to support full standards-based simulation solution
• MagicDraw / Cameo Suite used by INCOSE Challenge Teams
• Varied background in simulation across domains
• …UPDM, BPMN, Enterprise Architecture
• Online and on-site UML, SysML, and UPDM training
• On site Requirements Management training
• Simulation training coming soon
No Magic, known industry-wide for modeling, simulation and analysis

Simulation Defined
Webster’s Defines Simulation
“To assume the mere appearance of…
without the reality”

Simulation Defined: Gartner on Simulation
Gartner defines simulation as
“Using analytical tools and models to maximize
business process and decision effectiveness
by examining alternative outcomes and
scenarios, before, during and after process
implementation and execution.”
Source: A Vision of Advanced Business Process Simulation and Optimization, June 2010

Simulation Defined
“Simulation is the process of
designing a model of a real
system and conducting
experiments with this model for
the purpose of either
understanding the behavior of
the system and/or evaluating
various strategies for the
operation of the system.”
– Source: Introduction to Simulation Using SIMAN, 2 nd Ed

Simulation Defined
Simulation allows us to:
– Model complex systems
– Describe the behavior of systems
– Develop theories or hypotheses that
account for the observed behavior
– Use the simulation to predict future
behavior such as the effects resulting
from system changes
– Analyze proposed systems which have
not yet been developed

Simulation Defined
Simulation is one of the most widely used techniques in
operations research and management science…
– It is not a “last resort”
– In the 1950’s & 1960’s as computers came of age, introduction
of languages such as SIMSCRIPT, GPSS, simulation was
seen as a tool of “last resort”
– Fairly recent, based on Monte Carlo Simulation

Simulation a Brief History
– In the late 60’s and 70’s most computers were mainframes and
access and interaction was limited”
– Widely used today for problems which are not analytically
solvable such as complex multiple integrals
– Pritsker introduced GASP IV which resulted in a number of
applications, significant in the evolution of simulation

Simulation: A Brief History
– In the late 70’s and early 80’s SLAM introduced in ‘79 by
Pritsker and Pergden
– Models were more credible because of sophisticated tools
– SIMAN introduced in ’82 by Pergden. 1 st language to run on
both mainframe and microcomputer
– Late 80’s till now, advent of powerful PC’s, sophisticated
languages
– Major advancement in graphics
– Models can now be simulated

Simulation Applications: What Can Be Simulated?
What can be simulated?
Almost anything can be simulated and almost
everything has!
– Computer Systems
– Manufacturing
– Business
– Government
– Military
– Healthcare

Simulation Applications: What Can Be Simulated?
– Computer Systems: hardware components, software systems, networks, database
management, information processing
– Manufacturing: material handling systems, assembly, automated production, inventory control,
plant logistics
– Business: financial analysis, stock and commodity analysis, pricing policies, cash flow analysis,
financial “what-if” analysis and forecasting
– Government: state and local municipal growth, jobs and population forecasting, land use,
health care delivery, traffic scenarios, fire and safety simulations, criminal justice and traffic control
– Military: weapon design, UAV simulations, tactical simulations, war fighting simulation,
communication and logistics and weaponry cost/benefit simulation
– Healthcare: Patient records, payer/provider analytics

Simulation Applications: Advantages
Simulation’s greatest strength is
its ability to answer
“what-if” questions…
Other advantages of
simulation include:
– Ability to study existing systems without
disrupting ongoing operations
– Systems can be “tested” before committing
resources
– Ability to better control time and resources
– Identify process bottlenecks
– Gain insight into system performance:
» which variables are most important?

Simulation Applications: Gartner on Simulation Context
• Improve the detection
Source: A Vision of Advanced Business Process of and Simulation response to and
Optimization, June 2010
important signals/
patterns (such as market
movement)
• Examine the
effectiveness of
alternative decision
frameworks
• Fine-tune process
performance
• Maximize the
effectiveness of
resources
Source: A Vision of Advanced Business Process Simulation and Optimization, June 2010

Simulation Applications: Advantages
“If your organization seeks innovation in
dealing with known and unknown business
and market scenarios, leverage simulation to
target future process states, and exploit
emerging conditions or protect from threats.”
Source: A Vision of Advanced Business Process Simulation and Optimization, June 2010

Simulation Applications: The Simulation Professional Body of Knowledge
• Referent: What is simulated?
• Intention: Why is it simulated?
• Implementation: How is it
simulated?
• Credibility: How well is it
simulated?
• Programmatics: How is the
simulation managed?
• Application: What value is derived?

Executable Models
“Executable UML is the next logical, and perhaps inevitable, evolutionary step in the
ever-rising level of abstraction at which programmers express software solutions.”
Grady Booch
The purpose of a simulation is to gain system understanding without manipulating
the real system, either because it is not yet defined or available, or because it
cannot be exercised directly due to cost, time, resources or risk constraints.
Simulation is typically performed on a model of the system.
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Executable Models
• A model may be used to describe a domain or system under study or to
specify a (business, software and/or hardware) system to be built.
• Descriptive models are generally used for analysis.
• Specification models are generally used for engineering.
• The benefits of executable models
• Testable platform independent models (PIMs).
• Act as the implementation of the system (particularly for business
processes or software systems)
• Explore possible (desirable and undesirable) behaviors of a system
• Validate the behavioral specification for a system

Executable Models: A New Idea?
• Model execution tools are available, but execution semantics or
modeling capabilities are not standardized
• Mentor Graphics BridgePoint
• Kennedy-Carter xUML
• Rational Rose Real Time and Rhapsody
• Vitech CORE
• OMG standards are now filling these gaps
• Unified Modeling Language (UML)
• Systems Modeling Language (SysML)
• Executable UML Foundation (fUML)
• UML Action Language (Alf)
• XBRL standards for financial modeling
• Standards body using No Magic solutions

Executable Models: Cameo Simulation Toolkit
+
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Executable Models: Cameo Simulation Toolkit
The standard based model execution of:
Activities (OMG fUML standard)
Statemachines (W3C SCXML standard)
OpaqueBehaviors (JSR223 standard)
Parametrics (OMG SysML standard)
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Executable Models: Foundation for Executable UML
• OMG RFP for the Semantics of a Foundational Subset for Executable UML Models – Issued
April 2005
• fUML Version 1.0 Beta 3 (finalized) – February 2010
• An executable subset of standard UML that can be used to define the structural and
behavioral semantics of systems.
• fUML defines a basic virtual machine for the Unified Modeling Language, enabling compliant
models to be transformed into various executable forms for verification, integration and
deployment.
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Executable Models: Classifier Execution
The structural semantics of systems
An active class is one that has a classifier behavior.
Only active class may receive signals.
A classifier behavior is an autonomous behavior started when an active
class is instantiated.
A behavioral model is executable if it is complete enough
UML Behaviors: Activity, Statemachine, Interaction, OpaqueBehavior
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Executable Models: UML Object Diagram
The standard way to specify
objects and values

Executable Models: Activity
An activity specifies behavior as
the execution of a set of actions.
Action is the fundamental unit of
computational behavior.
An action takes a set of
inputs and converts them into
a set of outputs
Data and control
tokens flow
between the
actions.
An action in one
activity may call
another activity.

Activity Execution
How it works:
An activity diagram is a graph structure consisting of activity nodes
connected by activity edges
The object or control tokens flow along edges at runtime
A token is a container for an object, datum or locus of control
An action is a fundamental unit of executable behavior within an activity.
When all input pins have required number of tokens, action is fired and
produces an object token in its output pin
An output pin offers its tokens to the targets of all outgoing object flows.
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Activity Execution
Sending and receiving signals:
A signal is a classifier whose instances may be communicated
asynchronously.
A signal may have attributes that represent transmittable data.
A reception is a declaration of the ability to receive a signal.
A SendSignalAction may create and send signal instance to any target
Object
AcceptEventAction suspends execution and waits for a trigger
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Actions Semantics

Action Language
• The class and state models can only provide a static view of the domain
• Action Semantics was added to the UML specification in 2001
• It is convenient to use a textual rather than graphical notation
• “this.light = new Light()”
• Textual action languages have been around for a while:
Object Action Language(OAL), Shlaer-Mellor Action Language(SMALL), Action Specification Language(ASL), That Action
Language(TALL), Starr's Concise Relational Action Language(SCRALL), Platform-independent Action Language (PAL)
and PathMATE Action Language (PAL).
• UML Action Language (Alf)
• OMG RFP for Concrete Syntax for a UML Action Language – Issued September 2008
• Two initial submissions – August 2009
• Joint revised submission – February 2010

Action Languages in Cameo Simulation Toolkit
JSR 223: Scripting for the Java Platform
• Pluggable scripting languages/engines
• Context variables can be defined in scripting environment
• MagicDraw utility methods can be called
Built-in languages:
• OCL, Java binary, Javascript, Ruby, Groovy and Python
• Many other can be freely downloaded at https://scripting.dev.java.net
OpaqueExpressions can be used in:
• OpaqueActions
• OpaqueBehaviors
• Constraints, guards and decisions
• Default values of the properties

The State Machine
A state machine abstracts
system behavior into a finite
number of states.
The system is modeled as
having discrete transitions
between the states.
Behaviors are associated with
transitions (Mealy style)
..or are associated with states
(Moore style)

State Machine Execution
How it works:
Put all objects into an initial state
When an object enters a state, it begins executing the entry
activity (procedure) immediately
Upon completion, the object waits for an event to occur
If one of these events corresponds to a trigger of outgoing
transition, the waiting object will follow the transition and get busy
again.
Busy objects do not react to any events.
When events targeted at a busy object occur, they are held
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The Calculator

State Machines
State machine semantics are described in detail in the UML Superstructure
specification, but this is not formalized.
State machine semantics have been formalized by Harel and others, but these
formalizations have not been standardized for UML.
It is NOT part of fUML specification

State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction
• W3C Working Draft 13 May 2010
• Provides a generic state machine–based execution environment based on Harel state
charts.
• Describes complex state-machines, including sub-states, concurrency, history, time
events and more.
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fUML and SCXML Integration
The problem:
• fUML does NOT support Statemachines
• SCXML engine uses SCXML document for execution
The solution:
• Implement UML Statemachine to SCXML mapping
• SCXML engine is wrapped into fUML interfaces
• fUML engine is wrapped into SCXML interfaces
The result:
• Engines are independent, integration is part of the toolkit
• Statemachine in CallBehaviorActions
• Activities or OpaqueBehaviors as entry/do/exit behaviors of the State
• SendSignalAction can trigger Transitions in the Statemachine
• UML Statemachine can be exported to SCXML file
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Cameo Simulation Toolkit
Model execution framework and infrastructure:
Model debugging and animation
Pluggable engines, languages and evaluators
User Interface prototyping
Model driven configs and test cases
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Simulation Management Window
Sessions tree
Variables
Breakpoints
Console
Control panel
Triggers
Animation speed slider
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Sessions Panel
Represents running threads/sessions
Hierarchical view (nested sessions)
Synchronous/asynchronous sessions
Status of the session (started, paused)
Independently terminate or suspend any session
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Variables Panel
Represents runtime structure in a selected session context
Runtime objects tree and values
Based on fUML execution model
Editable primitive values
Allows inject event into selected Object event pool
Represents the current state of every object
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Breakpoints
Breakpoint can be added from the model element context menu
The execution will be paused when this element is activated
Conditional execution suspending
Suspend modes : on entry, on exit and both
Values can be changed while execution is suspended
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Animation
Visited and active element highlighting
Breakpoints highlighting
Custom colors
Exposing token values on diagram
Adjustable animation speed
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Execution Configuration
Some predefined execution settings can be set using model-based execution
configuration
«ExecutionConfig» configuration properties consist of:
executionTarget – the element which execution should be started.
silent – if true, animation and idle will not be used.
ui – user interface mockup configuration.
log – element to which execution trace will be recorded.
The execution configuration can be selected and executed directly, or may
be used as target element in other execution configurations.
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Execution Trace
DSL for execution trace
All events are recorder to the special model
Custom reports and validation rules
DSL customization for user-friendly browsing
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The Goal: Automated Analysis

User Interface Prototyping
Cameo Simulation Toolkit provides several approaches for UI prototyping:
“Executable” User Interface Modeling Diagram
System state animator (ImageSwitcher)
API for custom UI implementations or third party integrations
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User Interface Prototyping
User Interface diagram allows creating mockups in seconds:
Drop signal on “Button” to assign name and trigger
Drop property on “Label” to be monitored
Drop images from disk or web browser
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ActiveImage and ImageSwitcher
• ImageSwitcher is one more predefined subtype of UI config.
• It contains collection of ActiveImage elements to represent all the states
• The whole lifecycle of the object can be animated
Definition : Runtime representation :
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Verification and Validation
• Various kinds of validation and verification options are available:
• model validation before execution (new validation suite)
• action preconditions and postconditions checking
• conditional breakpoints
• constraints in any action language
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Model-based Test Cases
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The Future of Simulation: Our Vision
What’s next:
V&V, analysis and report tools
SysML execution semantics support
BPMN diagrams execution (BPEL and XPDL standards)
UPDM support
Alf (UML Action Language) support
Sequence diagram execution
Webservices – remote access to execution environment
“Why are we so bullish on simulation in general…As mankind tackles
more and more complex problems, simulation plays an increasingly
important role in solving those problems.”
Source: Drew Hamilton, Assoc Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Simulation Magazine, Vol. 84, #12,
December, 2008
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The Future of Simulation: Industry Collaboration
Organizations Devoted to Modeling & Simulation:
Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS)
Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
SimSummit
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Gartner on the Future of Simulation
“ While many optimization methods,
techniques and tools can help in BPI*
efforts, we have selected simulation as
the most important optimization technique
for processes now and in the near future.”
*BPI is represented today by BPM disciplines which treat processes as assets

Live Demonstration: Cameo Simulation Toolkit
Try it now!
1.0 GA version was released on December 20, 2010
Free trial download at www.magicdraw.com
Training and Mentoring Available
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Live Demonstration
Let’s See the Cameo Simulation Toolkit in Action

Contact Information
Gary Duncanson
President and CEO
No Magic, Inc.
+1 214-291-9100
gary@nomagic.com