Brugali, D., Model-Driven Software Engineering in Robotics: Models Are Designed to Use the Relevant Things, Thereby Reducing the Complexity and Cost in the Field of Robotics, in Robotics & Automation Magazine, IEEE , vol.22, no.3, pp.155-166, Sept. 2015, DOI: 10.1109/MRA.2015.2452201.
A model is an abstract representation of a real system or phenomenon [1]. The idea of a model is to capture important properties of reality and to eglect irrelevant details. The properties that are relevant and that can be neglected depend on the purpose of creating a model. A model can make a particular system or phenomenon easier to understand, quantify, visualize, simulate, or predict.