exercises  -  17. models of the system

EXERCISE 17.9

This exercise is based on the nuclear reactor scenario on the web at: www.hcibook.com/e3/scenario/nuclear/. You will need to refer to this while completing the exercise.

The exercise is in four parts, but you will probably find it easier to work on them in parallel. As you try to define actions you will find state elements you have missed and as you work through the scenarios you will probably find problems that you need to go back and change in the state and actions.

(a) Complete the following partial description of the state of the nuclear control panel.

________________________________________________________________   
|  Alarm_State:            {Green, Amber, TempRed,    Red}
|  Confirm_Needed:         Boolean [ that is true or false]
|  Target_Pressure:        Nat [ that is { 0, 1, 2, … }    ]
|  Target_Temp:            Nat
|  Target_Flow:            Nat
|  Manual_Override_Value:  Nat
|  ...
________________________________________________________________

(b) Here is a description of the state change for two actions: when a digit is pressed on the keypad and when the '-' key is pressed.
Note we have not written it in 'proper' Z, but in a form of pseudo code.

keypad_digit(d)
________________________________________________________________   
|   add d to the right-hand end of Manual_Override_Value
________________________________________________________________
alarm_lower [minus key is pressed]
________________________________________________________________   
|   if ( Alarm_State is Red or Alarm State is TempRed )
|   then set Alarm_State to Amber

|   if ( Alarm_State is Amber or Alarm_State is Green )
|   then set Alarm_State to Green
________________________________________________________________   

Using these to guide you, complete the following two partial descriptions of the state changes for the CONFIRM and CANCEL buttons on the Emergency Confirm control panel

confirm
________________________________________________________________   
|   set Confirm_Needed to false

|   if ( Alarm_State is TempRed )
|   then set Alarm_State to Red

|   ... something about emergency shutdown too
|   ...
________________________________________________________________   
cancel
________________________________________________________________ 
     set Confirm_Needed to false

|   if ( Alarm_State is TempRed )
|   then set Alarm_State to Amber

|   ... something about emergency shutdown too
|   ...
________________________________________________________________   

(c) Produce descriptions of the state change for the following actions:

(i) alarm_higher - the '+' key is pressed on the Alarm Control panel
(ii) shutdown - the IMMEDIATE SHUTDOWN COMMENCE button has been pressed on the Emergency Shutdown panel
(iii) select_target(targ) - the target pulldown has been used on theManual Override panel. targ is one of {Pressure, Temp, Flow}
(iv) set_target_value - the SET button has been pressed on the Manual Override panel

(d) Check your state and actions by running through the scenario and annotating each action with the current state. Use the following example of the first few steps as a guide to the appropriate level of detail.

Initial state:	Alarm_State is Green
	Confirm_Needed is false
	etc. ...
Steps 1, 2	no system actions
Step 3	press '+' twice alarm_higher: Alarm_State = Amber alarm_higher: Alarm_State = TempRed Confirm_Needed = True
Step 4	button glows because Confirm_Needed = True
Step 5	no system action
etc