Functional metamodels for systems and software

The modeling, analysis and design of systems is generally based on many formalisms to describe discrete and/or continuous behaviors, and to map these descriptions into a specific platform. In this context, the article proposes the concept of functional metamodeling to capture, then to integrate modeling languages. The concept offers an alternative to standard Model Driven Engineering (MDE) and is well adapted to mathematical descriptions such as the ones found in system modeling. As an application, a set of functional metamodels is proposed for dataflows (usable to model continuous behaviors), state-transition systems (usable to model discrete behaviors) and a metamodel for actions (to model interactions with a target platform and concurrent execution). A model of a control architecture for a legged robot is proposed as an application of these modeling languages.