TT_Vol3 Issue2 - Raytheon

Model Driven Computing
Leveraging Emerging Technologies
As our products continually become
more complex, and our customers demand
lower risk and higher productivity,
Raytheon’s engineers continue to look for
new ways to develop our systems and software.
Additionally, to grow as a mission
systems integrator, Raytheon must be able
to develop complex system
architectures that meet
customer standards, and
must be able to efficiently
turn those architectures into
working products. An evolving
technology that addresses
these issues is Model-Driven
Computing (MDC).
Model-Driven Computing is
our term for system and
software development driven
and centered on models that
are used to specify systems
and software architecture,
and low-level system design
details. Raytheon, going
beyond the commercial tools
available today, is working
towards merging commercial,
government and university
research into a more complete MDC
strategy. This approach optimizes such tools
and standards as the Unified Modeling
Language (UML), Model Driven Architecture
(MDA) and output from some advanced
research programs funded by the Defense
Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).
Raytheon’s MDC approach starts with
important industry standards. UML, today’s
key standard in software systems modeling,
has recently become even more complete
with the release of UML 2.0. UML provides
the foundation for most commercial modeling
tools and is extensively used across
Raytheon. However, although UML is an
expressive and powerful language, it does
not provide for integration of different
model standards, or portability of models
to different platforms. This extension and
advancement of modeling is the goal of
the MDA approach advanced by the Object
Management Group (OMG). MDA provides
key capabilities desired by Raytheon customers,
such as portability of models from
simulations to deliverable hardware, and
sharing of models across multiple domains
(e.g., shipboard defense and missile systems).
UML and MDA, both of which are important
commercial standards, but they do
not, by themselves, provide Raytheon with
a competitive edge. Nor do they provide
aspects of the complex modeling environment
needed by Raytheon when integrating
large-scale systems. Raytheon looks to
merge the best of UML and MDA with
research performed by several universities
and DARPA. This research focuses on
advancing state-of-the-art techniques in
the application of MDC to Distributed,
Real-Time and Embedded Systems. DARPA’s
Model-Based Integration of Embedded
Systems (MoBIES) Program is establishing
an open-source, standards-based tool suite.
Tools and methods from this research allow
the development of domain-specific models
and frameworks in complex, distributed
systems. These products go beyond what is
provided in today’s commercial standards
and tools.
Another primary objective is the improved
control and generation of system software.
One MoBIES technology developer is the
Institute for Software Integrated Systems
(ISIS) at Vanderbilt University. ISIS, as well as
being a major contributor on the MoBIES
program, is working to determine if
DARPA-funded efforts have
a chance of making it into
the mainstream, and to
migrate DARPA-funded tools
to the ECLIPSE Open-Tool
Integration Framework (via
sponsorship from IBM).
Raytheon is directing and
evaluating research in next
generation modeling tools,
such as Vanderbilt
University’s Generic
Modeling Environment,
which are developed under
the industry standard Open
Eclipse Framework.
To secure our leadership in
these important technologies,
Raytheon is actively
developing, evaluating and
leveraging model-driven computing tools
and methods. We also participate in the
development of new standards focused on
real time modeling within the OMG. We
are performing cooperative research with
universities to evaluate new modeling technology
in our domains. We are also founding
members of a new consortium dedicated
to commercializing DARPA software research
(the ESCHER Research Consortium). And we
actively support the sharing of this information
through our technology networks.
Raytheon will continue to be active in all
aspects of Model-Driven Computing. As
standards are stabilized and tools mature
and emerge, this technology will be vital in
helping us to meet our customers’ everchanging
requirements. MDC will continue
to play an important role in helping to
make Raytheon the premier mission
systems integration company. �
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