HintCO – Hint-based Configuration of Co-simulations

Abstract

Simulation-based analyses of Cyber-Physical Systems are fundamental in industrial design and testing approaches. The utility of analyses relies on the correct configuration of the simulation tools, which can be<br>highly complicated. System engineers can normally judge the results, and either evaluate multiple simulation<br>algorithms, or change the models. However, this is not possible in a co-simulation approach. Co-simulation is a<br>technique to perform full-system simulation, by combining multiple black-box simulators, each responsible<br>for a part of the system. In this paper, we demonstrate the difficulty of correctly configuring a co-simulation<br>scenario using an industrial case study. We propose an approach to tackle this challenge by allowing multiple<br>engineers, specialized in different domains, to encode some of their experience in the form of hints. These<br>hints, together with state-of-the-art best practices, are then used to semi-automatically guide the configuration<br>process of the co-simulation. We report the application of this approach to a use case proposed by our industrial<br>partners, and discuss some of the lessons learned. <br>