Modeling Component Behavior

Modeling Component Behavior (chapter intro)

This guide is concerned with the language used to define a component's behavior. This language is only used in the Component Model Builder tool. This section is a reference to where and how the language is used within the Component Model Builder.

The source page includes "Figure 1: Component Behavior" — a diagram showing a simple representation of the various aspects of a component model (image not reproduced here).

The Component Model Builder

To create a new Component Model you must use the Component Model Builder tool. There are several stages to building a Component Model:

• Selecting the Component Category
• Selecting the Behavior Modeling Type
• Defining the Component Interface
• Defining the component's Structure
• Defining the component's Behavior
• Defining the component's Failure Modes

Component Category

When you create a new Component Model you will see the Create New Component dialog box ("Figure 2: Create New Component Dialog Box" — image not reproduced here).

The Component Category you select will change the way in which you can define a component's structure and behavior. Most components will be in the category "Other", which allows you to use all the structure and behavior language functions.

Behavior Modeling Type

Your choice of Expressions or State Machines for the Behavior Modeling Type will determine whether you use the Dependency Editor or State Builder to describe your model's behavior. The Dependency Editor and State Builder use the same basic language to describe a model's behavior.

The Dependency Expressions language is a subset of the State Machine language, therefore this guide focuses on describing the State Machine Language.

Component Interface

Below is (in the source) a screen shot of a completed "Multi_Speed_Motor" in the Component Model Builder ("Figure 3: Component Model Builder Dialog Box" — image not reproduced here). In the "Component Interface" section of the window, Input and Output Properties are defined. This example Component Model has the Input Property "Speed_Selection" and two Output Properties: "Turning" and "Direction".

Input/Output Properties are defined by using the New, Edit and Delete buttons. Clicking New brings up the Component Interface Property dialog ("Figure 4: Component Interface Property Dialog Box" — image not reproduced here), used to define an Interface Property. You can select a property to be an Input or Output, and Boolean or Enumeration type. How to use Input and Output Properties is described fully in the next topic (see capital-saint-console-print.md / scalar-action files for the language reference).

Structure

The Edit Mode's Structure button in the Component Model Builder tool brings up the Structure Editor window where the component's electrical structure is defined. The Component's electrical structure defines the properties of the component.

The Edit Mode's Behavior button starts either the Dependency Editor or the State Builder, depending on the Behavior Modeling Type selected when the component was first created. The Dependency Editor and State Builder are where SAINT is used to describe the component's normal (and failed) behavior. SAINT can reference the Component Interface's Input and Output Properties, and the Structure's Resistances (Arcs) and terminals (Nodes), to control the way the component behaves.

Failure Modes

Once you have defined the component's normal behavior you can then define its failed behavior. A component can fail in several different ways, for example: open circuit and short circuit. Either way of failing is called a failure mode. Creating a new failure mode opens the Failure Mode dialog ("Figure 5: Failure Mode Dialog Box" — image not reproduced here), where you define a new failure mode including the Name, Occurrence, and the type of Behavior for that failure mode.

Extraction note: the remaining sub-topics of this chapter — Input/Output Properties, Properties of the Current Model, Properties of Other Components (Broadcast Properties), Dependency Expressions, State Machines, Comments — were identified and their topic IDs captured, but full verbatim extraction was not completed in this pass. See _agent-saint-extraction-index.md for status and topic IDs so a follow-up session can resume directly.