Interconnection of Heterogeneous CPS Models Through Architectural Views

Designing cyber-physical systems involves decomposing them into heterogeneous models to represent different parts of the system. These models are created with different formalisms: signal flow diagrams, continuous equations, UML models, and so on. For example, one could represent physical parts of a system in MapleSim, its control structure in Simulink, and its source code in SysML. Differences in element vocabularies, levels of abstraction, and fundamental premises of these models pose a number of challenges to the engineering process of cyber-physical systems. How should heterogeneous models be composed? What is a consistent, correct composition of these models? How do changes in one model affect the other models? Answering these questions "correctly" is crucial to avoid implicit and costly errors late in the project.