Inherent complexity of heterogeneous system design has been traditionally faced by means of abstraction and design automation. At the highest level of abstraction, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) can be extended to model the whole system under design in an homogeneous fashion. In this paper, a design methodology based on the UML is presented. The benefits of using such a methodology are hig...

Computing Science and Systems Theory can gain much from unified mathematical models and methodology, in particular formal reasoning (“letting the symbols do the work”). This is achieved by a wide-spectrum formalism. The language uses just four constructs, yet suffices to synthesize familiar notations (minus the defects) as well as new ones. It supports formal calculation rules convenient for ha...

The software engineering of multi-agent systems demands specification of the required agent behaviours to provide documented requirements for the design and implementation phases. A methodology for the analysis and specification of agent behaviours is proposed, which arises from a lengthy experience in the construction of multi-agent simulations for military operations research. The methodology...

Collaborative design is a collection of the co-operated efforts undertaken by a team of designers. Due to multi-actors interaction, conflicts can emerge from disagreements between designers about proposed designs. Therefore, a critical element of collaborative design would be conflict resolution. In this paper, the DEPNET methodology is introduced to support conflict management. This methodolog...

In this paper, a systematic methodology to calculate the end-effector position and orientation errors of a robotic manipulator is presented. The method treats the physical error sources in a unified manner during the system’s design so that the effect they have on the end-effector positioning accuracy can be compared and the dominant sources identified. Based on this methodology, a computer pro...

This paper presents a methodology for requirement prioritization. The approach provides a flexible and realistic approach that considers all attributes of particular requirements and fuses them into a unified metric, representative of all quality criteria identified for a specific software project. The derived quality measurement can be used as the main metric for requirements prioritization. T...

Building efficient and correct system power-management strategies relies on efficient power architecture decision making as well as respecting structural dependencies induced by such architecture. Transaction level modelling allows a rapid exploration, verification and evaluation of alternative power-management architectures and strategies. This study introduces an efficient methodology for mak...

This paper proposes a methodology for the development of distributed real-time (RT) systems using the Communicating Real-Time State Machines (CRSMs) formal specification language. The methodology is novel in that it addresses complex systems by extending CRSMs with concepts borrowed from Statecharts, and favours timing predictability through a holistic integration of an RT system and its operat...

Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA) comprises a family of multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) methods for problems including incomplete, imprecise, and uncertain information. Methods of the family allow solving MCDA problems of various types. Even though the methods have been applied in the past in various real-life decision-making situations, the structure of a unified ...