Towards a DSL to Formalize Multimodal Requirements

TL;DR

This paper introduces MERLAN, a domain-specific language designed to formalize and specify requirements for multimodal systems involving multiple input types, addressing a gap in current modeling tools.

Contribution

The paper presents the design of MERLAN, including its metamodel, textual syntax, and a prototype tool for requirements specification and automatic system generation.

Findings

Successfully defined a metamodel for multimodal requirements

Developed an ANTLR-based textual syntax for MERLAN

Created a prototype tool for requirements engineering in multimodal systems

Abstract

Multimodal systems, which process multiple input types such as text, audio, and images, are becoming increasingly prevalent in software systems, enabled by the huge advancements in Machine Learning. This triggers the need to easily define the requirements linked to these new types of user interactions, potentially involving more than one modality at the same time. This remains an open challenge due to the lack of languages and methods adapted to the diverse nature of multimodal interactions, with the risk of implementing AI-enhanced systems that do not properly satisfy the user needs. In this sense, this paper presents MERLAN, a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) to specify the requirements for these new types of multimodal interfaces. We present the metamodel for such language together with a textual syntax implemented as an ANTLR grammar. A prototype tool enabling requirements engineers to write such requirements and automatically generate a possible implementation of a system compliant with them on top of an agentic framework is also provided.