Create Architecture Model with Interfaces and Requirement Links - MATLAB & Simulink (original) (raw)

In this topic, you learn how to create an architecture model of a robot arm using System Composer™, define interfaces on ports, and add requirement links to components.

You learn how to:

A Requirements Toolbox™ license is required to link, trace, and manage requirements in System Composer.

For more information about the model-based systems engineering workflow within System Composer, see Compose and Analyze Systems Using Architecture Models.

Visually Represent System

Implementing an architectural design starts with visually representing the system using components and their connections. Create an architecture model, represent the system components, and draw the connections between them.

Create Architecture Model

  1. Enter this command in the MATLAB® Command Window.
    The Simulink® Start Page opens to System Composer.
  2. Click Architecture Model.
    Accessing a new System Composer architecture model from the Simulink start page.
    System Composer provides template architecture models that address different domains in systems engineering and software architecture modeling: Architecture Model andSoftware Architecture Model. All architecture models provide the same structural capabilities with some domain and platform specific constraints. For more information on architecture templates, see Choose Architecture Template for System Design.
    A new, blank architecture model canvas opens. You can identify an architecture model by the badge in the lower left corner and the component palette on the left side.
    A new untitled architecture model in System Composer.
  3. Double-click the architecture model header and change untitled to a descriptive model name, for example, RobotDesign. The name of the model generally reflects the system whose architecture you are building.
    Renamed architecture model called 'Robot'.
  4. Save the model.

Draw Components

Design a mobile robotic arm where a sensor senses position and trajectory planning computes a path to a location that the robot needs to reach using motion. An architecture model of such a system could consist of three primary components: Sensors, Trajectory Planning, and Motion. You can represent these components in System Composer using three Component blocks.

  1. Click and drag a Component block component block icon from the left-side palette.
    Click and drag a component from the left-side palette to add it to the architecture model.
  2. Rename the component as Sensors.
  3. Follow these steps to create Trajectory Planning and Motion components.
    An architecture model called 'Robot' with three components

Create Ports and Connections

You can begin to create connectivity between components by describing the flow of power, energy, data, or any other representative information. Create ports on the components that provide or consume information and connectors that bind two component ports to represent the flow of the information.

You can add a port to a component on any side, and the port can have either an input or output direction. To create a port, pause your cursor over a component side. Click and release to view port options. Select either Input, Output, or Physical to create a port. Rename the port using a name that represents the information that flows through that port.

  1. Create an output port on the bottom side of the Sensors component. Rename it SensorData.
    'Robot' architecture model with a downward facing output port below the 'Sensors' component called 'Sensor Data'.
  2. Click and drag a line from the SensorData output port to the Motion component. When you see an input port created at the component side, release the pointer. By default, this new port has the same name as the source port.
  3. Pause on the corner of the SensorData line until you see the branch icon branch icon. Right-click and drag a branch line to the Trajectory Planning component.
    'Robot' architecture model with a 'Sensor Data' connection out-port from the 'Sensors' component connected to two in-ports into the 'Trajectory Planning' and 'Motion' components.
  4. Complete the connections as shown in this figure.
    To the 'Robot' architecture model, add a 'Motion Command' connection from the 'Trajectory Planning' component to the 'Motion' component, and an 'Encoder' connection from the 'Motion' component to the 'Sensors' component.

The root level of the architecture model can also have ports that describe the interaction of the system with its environment. In this example, the target position for the robot is provided by a computer external to the robot itself. Represent this relationship with an input port.

  1. Click the left edge of the architecture model and enter the port name TargetPosition.
  2. Connect an architecture port to a component by dragging a line from the TargetPosition input port to the Trajectory Planning component. Connections to or from an architecture port appear as tags.
    Final 'Robot' model has an architecture port connected from the 'Trajectory Planning' component to the 'Target Position' input port.

Edit Data Interfaces

You can define a data interface to fully specify a connection and its associated ports. A data interface can consist of multiple data elements with various dimensions, units, and data types. To check for consistency when connecting a port, you can also associate interfaces with unconnected ports during component design.

Specify the information flow through a port between components by configuring the data interface with attributes. A data interface can be as simple as sending an integer value, but it can also be a set of numbers, an enumeration, a combination of numbers and strings, or a bundle of other predefined interfaces.

Consider the data interface between the Sensors and the Motion components. The sensor data consists of:

  1. To open the Interface Editor, navigate to > .
  2. Click the add interface button to add a data interface. Name the interface sensordata.
    The data interface is named and defined separately from a component port and then assigned to a port.
  3. Click the SensorData output port on the Sensors component. In the Interface Editor, right-click sensordata and select Assign to Selected Port(s).
    If you click sensordata again, the three SensorData ports are highlighted, indicating the connected ports are associated with that interface.
    Model with three 'Sensor Data' ports highlighted in purple.
  4. Add a data element to the selected data interface. Click the add data element button to add a data element and name it timestamp.
  5. Continue adding data elements to the data interface as specified by clicking the add data element button.
    Name Type Units
    timestamp double seconds
    direction1 double degrees
    direction2 double degrees
    distance1 double meters
    distance2 double meters
    position1 double degrees
    position2 double degrees
  6. Edit the properties of a data element in the Interface Editor. Click on the cell corresponding to the data element in the table and add units as shown in the specification.
    Click the drop-down list next to the save to data dictionary button to save the data interface to a data dictionary. A data dictionary allows you to collectively manage and share a set of interfaces among models. For instance, later in the design, if you choose to model the external computer as a separate architecture model, then this model and the Robot model can share the same data dictionary. Here, the dictionary is saved as RobotDD.
    The Robot DD dictionary with interface named 'sensor data' and interface elements named 'time stamp', 'direction 1', direction 2', distance 1', distance 2', 'position 1', and 'position 2.

Decompose Components

Each component can have its own architecture. Double-click a component to decompose it into its subcomponents.

  1. Double-click the Trajectory Planning component. The Explorer Bar and Model Browser indicates the position of the component in the model hierarchy.
    The inside of the 'Trajectory Planning' component shows three architecture ports called 'Target Position, 'Sensor Data', and 'Motion Command'.
    This component first uses the motor position data that is part of the sensordata interface to compute the ideal position and velocity command. It then processes the obstacle distance information in the same interface to condition this motion command according to some safety rules.
  2. Add Motion Control and Safety Rules components as part of the Trajectory Planning architecture.
    Drag the TargetPosition port to the Motion Control component. Add a Command output port to Motion Control, then drag a line to the Safety Rules component. Drag lines from the SensorData port to the Motion Control and Safety Rules components.
    Port connections for the 'Trajectory Planning' component.

Robot Arm Architecture Model

Open the architecture model of a robot arm that consists of sensors, motion actuators, and a planning algorithm. You can use System Composer to view the interfaces and manage the requirements for this model.

Requirements are integral to the systems engineering process. Some requirements relate to the functionality of the overall system, and some relate to aspects of performance such as power, size, and weight. Decomposing high-level requirements into low-level requirements and deriving additional requirements is crucial to defining the architecture of the overall system. For instance, the overall power consumption of the robot determines the requirement for the power consumption of the robot controller.

To allocate and trace requirements with system elements, System Composer fully integrates with Requirements Toolbox. To derive appropriate requirements, you must sometimes analyze and specify properties (such as power) for elements of the system including components, ports, or connectors. For example, if the total cost of the system is a concern, a unitPrice property is necessary.

Manage requirements from the Requirements Perspective in System Composer using Requirements Toolbox. Navigate to > . For more information, see View and Link Requirements in Simulink (Requirements Toolbox).

Requirements perspective showing requirement list and requirement links on components in the model.

To enhance the traceability of requirements, link requirements to architectural components and ports. When you click a component in the Requirements Perspective, linked requirements are highlighted. Conversely, when you click a requirement, the linked components are shown. To directly create a link, drag a requirement onto a component or a port.

See Also

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