ECEASST Foundations of Modelling and Simulation of Complex Systems

Abstract: Modelling and simulation are becoming increasingly important enablers for the analysis and design of complex systems. In application domains such as automotive design, the notion of a “virtual experiment ” is taken to the limit and complex designs are model-checked, simulated, and optimized extensively before a single realization is ever made. This “doing it right the first time ” leads to tremen-dous cost savings and improved quality. Furthermore, with appropriate models, it is often possible to automatically synthesize (parts of) the system-to-be-built. In this paper, the basic concepts of modelling and simulation are introduced. These concepts are based on general systems theory and start from the idea of a model as an abstract representation of knowledge about structure and behaviour of some system. The purpose is either analysis or design in a particular experimental context. Typically, different formalisms are used such as Ordinary Differential Equations, Queueing Networks, and State Automata. It will be shown how these different for-malisms all share a common structure and differ in the choice of time base, state space, and description of temporal evolution. This allows one to classify formalisms on the one hand and to find a common ground for implementing simulators on the other hand