Data Type Propagation in Simulink Models with Graph Transformation

Embedded systems are usually modeled to simulate their behavior. Nowadays, this modeling is often implemented in the Simulink environment, which offers strong support for modeling complex systems. Moreover, via modeling, various analyses can be applied to the systems at design time. An important analysis is of the data types assigned to signal variables. Such analysis enables identification of potential problems during model compilation and so prevent runtime surprises. To assist the system designer, Simulink supports which includes a step for automatic data type inferencing (e.g., based on designed signal value ranges and on the connection structure of design elements). In contrast to the Simulink implementation of the inferencing in a code base, which favors efficiency, the work presented here raises the level of abstraction by explicitly modeling the inferencing logic. This unlocks benefits such as the ability to (i) reason about the logic, (ii) implement different logic by advanced users, and (iii) experiment with different ordering of other logic in the model compilation.