Developing µController-Systems with UML. A MARMOT Case Study

According to its proponents, model-based and component-oriented software development has the capacity to compete successfully, and perhaps in many cases displace, traditional commercial development methods even for embedded system development. In order to investigate these claims, the development of a small embedded system (i.e., control of an exterior mirror) using the MARMOT development approach is presented. To evaluate the promised ease of reuse by following a component-oriented approach the components of the mirror system are used in the context of different projects. Thereby, several aspects of reuse, application size, adaptation, and development effort are quantified. This analysis reveals that model-based and component-oriented development performs well for small embedded systems. This allows the conclusion that applying model-based development for small embedded systems lead to adaptable systems and a higher-than-normal reuse rate.