Improving Safety Assessment of Complex Systems: An Industrial Case Study

The complexity of embedded controllers is steadily increasing. This trend, stimulated by the continuous improvement of the computational power of hardware, demands for a corresponding increase in the capability of design and safety engineers to maintain adequate safety levels. The use of formal methods during system design has proved to be effective in several practical applications. However, the development of certain classes of applications, like, for instance, avionics systems, also requires the behaviour of a system to be analysed under certain degraded situations (e.g., when some components are not working as expected). The integration of system design activities with safety assessment and the use of formal methods, although not new, are still at an early stage. These goals are addressed by the ESACS project, a EuropeanUnion-sponsored project grouping several industrial companies from the aeronautic field. The ESACS project is developing a methodology and a platform   the ESACS p...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: FM
• Authors: Marco Bozzano, Antonella Cavallo, Massimo Cifaldi, Laura Valacca, Adolfo Villafiorita
• Keywords: Adequate Safety Levels, FM 2003, Formal Methods, Safety Engineers