A new approach for modeling and verification of discrete control components within a modelica environment

The paper presents the use of a subset of UML Statecharts to model discrete control components together with the physical model within a Modelica simulation environment. In addition, we show how statecharts can also be used to describe assertions charts for checking the compliance of user defined model properties and model behaviour during simulation. As the main difference to other approaches, neither Modelica language enhancements nor special libraries are necessary. The statechart model is automatically mapped onto standard Modelica constructs and can be simulated with any common Modelica standard simulator. Controlled by the user, the Modelica model can be automatically instrumented by additional Modelica code to examine the state coverage and transition coverage during simulation.