Title: Behavioural inheritance in object-oriented models for mechatronic systems

Authors: Marcello Bonfe, Cesare Fantuzzi, Cristian Secchi

Addresses: Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ' Department of Science and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41100 Reggio Emilia, Italy. ' Department of Science and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 41100 Reggio Emilia, Italy

Abstract: This paper describes a formal framework for Object-Oriented (O-O) modelling of mechatronic systems, whose main contribution is, on the one hand, to unify the modelling approaches for dynamical systems and for industrial control software and, on the other hand, to provide a definition of inheritance, a cardinal concept in object-orientation, which emphasises the behavioural conformity of basic and derived classes of objects. The proposed framework exploits the coalgebraic description of software artefacts to provide a connection between the behavioural approach for modelling dynamical systems and the O-O approach for software modelling and design. In particular, our definition of inheritance aims to allow control engineers to apply the design by extension methodology, widely used in software engineering, to the development of mechatronic components for manufacturing systems.

Keywords: behavioural approach; category theory; industrial automation; mechatronics; object-oriented modelling; automation objects; industrial control; dynamic systems; design by extension; manufacturing systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2006.012254

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2006 Vol.1 No.4, pp.421 - 441

Published online: 31 Jan 2007 *

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