Embedding statecharts into Teleo-Reactive programs to model interactions between agents

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software Vol. 131; pp. 78 - 97
• Main Authors: Sánchez, Pedro, Álvarez, Bárbara, Martínez, Ramón, Iborra, Andrés
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.09.2017
• Subjects: Modeling reactive-systems; Statecharts; Teleo-Reactive; Teleo-Reactive; Modeling reactive-systems; Statecharts
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2017.05.081

•The TR paradigm is difficult and error-prone to directly model frequent interactions among agents.•Extending the approach by incorporating statecharts is an improvement.•A survey shows the benefit obtained when combining statecharts and TR programs. The Teleo-Reactive (TR) approach offers many possibilities for goal-oriented modeling of reactive systems, but it also has drawbacks when the number of interactions among agents is high, leading to barely legible specifications and losing the original benefits of the approach. This work combines the TR paradigm with statecharts and provides advantages for modeling reactive systems and removing the shortcomings detected. A basic example is adopted to reveal the problem that appears when agents are modeled only with the TR approach and have frequent interactions with others. This paper proposes an extension to the TR approach that integrates the modeling using statecharts. A transformation procedure from statecharts to TR programs makes it possible to continue using the infrastructure of existing execution platforms such as TeleoR. The approach has been validated for a particular domain by considering a more complex case study in which traditionally there have been no results on the application of the TR paradigm. A survey was carried out on students to verify the benefits of the approach. A method to consider statecharts when modeling TR programs. Statecharts can facilitate the adoption of the TR approach.