Flexible Visualization of Automatic Simulation based on Structured Graph Transformation

Visual modeling languages for discrete behavior modeling allow the modeler to describe how systems develop over time during system runs. Models of these languages are the basis for simulation with the purpose to validate the model with respect to its requirements. Graph transformation systems have shown to be suitable for the definition of various kinds of visual modeling languages. They define a model's operational semantics as the set of all transformations of a model which are specified by graph transformation rules. For automatic simulation, rules have to be structured to control their application order During simulation, the state changes after each rule application should be visualized in the concrete syntax of the modeling language. In this paper, we propose a generic approach to specify simulation environments based on a model's concrete syntax definition and suitable rule structuring techniques. We implement our approach using TIGER, a tool for defining visual languages based on graph transformation, and generate the specified simulation environment as plug-in for ECLIPSE. We demonstrate our approach by a case study for automatic simulation of Rubik's Clock, a mechanical two-sided puzzle of clocks controlled by rotating wheels.