On the Use of Coloured Petri Nets for Visual Animation

This paper reports on an exercise on constructing a visual animation layer for a behaviourally-intensive reactive system. We assume that the requirements of the system under consideration are described by use cases, and the behaviour of each use case is detailed by a collection of scenario descriptions. These use cases and scenarios are translated into a Coloured Petri Net (CPN) model, which is subsequently complemented with animation-specific elements. We describe how the CPN model must be structured to facilitate the animation process, and we present the supporting tools for creating the animation. We consider an elevator controller system as a case study, to demonstrate that a CPN model complemented with a visual animation layer constitutes a solid basis for addressing behavioural issues in an early phase of the development process, namely during the validation task.