Semantic Support for Log Analysis of Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

Testing is a relevant activity for the development life-cycle of Safety Critical Embedded systems. In particular, much effort is spent for analysis and classification of test logs from SCADA subsystems, especially when failures occur. The human expertise is needful to understand the reasons of failures, for tracing back the errors, as well as to understand which requirements are affected by errors and which ones will be affected by eventual changes in the system design. Semantic techniques and full text search are used to support human experts for the analysis and classification of test logs, in order to speedup and improve the diagnosis phase. Moreover, retrieval of tests and requirements, which can be related to the current failure, is supported in order to allow the discovery of available alternatives and solutions for a better and faster investigation of the problem.Comment: EDCC-2014, BIG4CIP-2014, Embedded systems, testing, semantic discovery, ontology, big dat

Component shape optimisation for enhanced non-destructive testing

Determining an optimal component design is fundamental to many applications including many of those in the aerospace, automotive and civil engineering industries. Previously, the compatibility of the component with future non-destructive testing (NDT) requirements has not been considered at the design stage. As a result, NDT operators are often challenged to reliably inspect components with complex geometries. In this paper, a framework is proposed for the optimisation of a component’s shape to maximise the sensitivity and coverage of an interrogating ultrasonic wave, thus enhancing the ability to non-destructively image defects. The design of beam cross-sections are optimised using both a low-dimensional parameterisation with a genetic algorithm, and the level set method which enables more degrees of freedom in the component shape parameterisation. Images of flaws computed using the total focusing method show an 8 dB improvement in the signal to noise ratio for the optimised component as well as a five-fold improvement in the estimate of flaw size. These results show that the NDT-optimised design of components can provide significant improvements in flaw imaging. This in turn assists in extending the lifespan of in-service components and indeed their remanufacturability, which is both environmentally and economically advantageous