Formalization and Validation of Safety-Critical Requirements

The validation of requirements is a fundamental step in the development process of safety-critical systems. In safety critical applications such as aerospace, avionics and railways, the use of formal methods is of paramount importance both for requirements and for design validation. Nevertheless, while for the verification of the design, many formal techniques have been conceived and applied, the research on formal methods for requirements validation is not yet mature. The main obstacles are that, on the one hand, the correctness of requirements is not formally defined; on the other hand that the formalization and the validation of the requirements usually demands a strong involvement of domain experts. We report on a methodology and a series of techniques that we developed for the formalization and validation of high-level requirements for safety-critical applications. The main ingredients are a very expressive formal language and automatic satisfiability procedures. The language combines first-order, temporal, and hybrid logic. The satisfiability procedures are based on model checking and satisfiability modulo theory. We applied this technology within an industrial project to the validation of railways requirements

Scheduling and Compiling Rate-Synchronous Programs with End-To-End Latency Constraints

We present an extension of the synchronous-reactive model for specifying multi-rate systems. A set of periodically executed components and their communication dependencies are expressed in a Lustre-like programming language with features for load balancing, resource limiting, and specifying end-to-end latencies. The language abstracts from execution time and phase offsets. This permits simple clock typing rules and a stream-based semantics, but requires each component to execute within an overall base period. A program is compiled to a single periodic task in two stages. First, Integer Linear Programming is used to determine phase offsets using standard encodings for dependencies and load balancing, and a novel encoding for end-to-end latency. Second, a code generation scheme is adapted to produce step functions. As a result, components are synchronous relative to their respective rates, but not necessarily simultaneous relative to the base period. This approach has been implemented in a prototype compiler and validated on an industrial application

From Dataflow Specification to Multiprocessor Partitioned Time-triggered Real-time Implementation *

International audienceOur objective is to facilitate the development of complex time-triggered systems by automating the allocation and scheduling steps. We show that full automation is possible while taking into account the elements of complexity needed by a complex embedded control system. More precisely, we consider deterministic functional specifications provided (as often in an industrial setting) by means of synchronous data-flow models with multiple modes and multiple relative periods. We first extend this functional model with an original real-time characterization that takes advantage of our time-triggered framework to provide a simpler representation of complex end-to-end flow requirements. We also extend our specifications with additional non-functional properties specifying partitioning, allocation , and preemptability constraints. Then, weprovide novel algorithms for the off-line scheduling of these extended specifications onto partitioned time-triggered architectures à la ARINC 653. The main originality of our work is that it takes into account at the same time multiple complexity elements: various types of non-functional properties (real-time, partitioning, allocation, preemptability) and functional specifications with conditional execution and multiple modes. Allocation of time slots/windows to partitions can be fullyor partially provided, or synthesized by our tool. Our algorithms allow the automatic allocation and scheduling onto multi-processor (distributed) sys-tems with a global time base, taking into account communication costs. We demonstrate our technique on a model of space flight software systemwith strong real-time determinism requirements

Construcción de matriz espacial de cascarilla cónica plegable de una capa

The paper covers the visualization of a volume-space form of the flexible inextensible one-layer shell that is represented in the stress and strain state appearing during fastening the shell on the upper edge and its free location below the fastening border in the field of gravitational and elastic forces of the material. With no account taken of the gravitational forces, the shell is a right circular flattened cone. A developed program module can be used in designing and calculating the thin-wall shell structures during their non-linear deformation and their visualization. Visualization of the space form of the shell structure can be used for simulating various products, for instance, the cone antennae or the textile products, flexible elastic shells in the hydraulic engineering, etc.Aquí se considera la visualización de una matriz volumétrica espacial de la cascarilla cónica plegable de una sola capa. Se representa la cascarilla en el estado de estrés y tensión registrado, cuando se fija la cascarilla en el borde superior y en su localización bajo del borde de anclaje en la campo de fuerzas elásticas y de gravedad del material. Sin tener en cuenta las fuerzas de gravedad, se define la cascarilla como un cono recto circular truncado. Se puede usar el módulo de programa desarrollado para diseñar y calcular estructuras de cascos con paredes delgadas expuestas a deformación no lineal así como durante su visualización. Se puede usar la visualización de la matriz espacial de la estructura de casco para simular diversos productos, por ejemplo, antenas cónicas o productos textiles, cascarillas plegables para ingeniería hidráulica, etc

Construcción de matriz espacial de cascarilla cónica plegable de una capa

Aquí se considera la visualización de una matriz volumétrica espacial de la cascarilla cónica plegable de una sola capa. Se representa la cascarilla en el estado de estrés y tensión registrado, cuando se fija la cascarilla en el borde superior y en su localización bajo del borde de anclaje en la campo de fuerzas elásticas y de gravedad del material. Sin tener en cuenta las fuerzas de gravedad, se define la cascarilla como un cono recto circular truncado. Se puede usar el módulo de programa desarrollado para diseñar y calcular estructuras de cascos con paredes delgadas expuestas a deformación no lineal así como durante su visualización. Se puede usar la visualización de la matriz espacial de la estructura de casco para simular diversos productos, por ejemplo, antenas cónicas o productos textiles, cascarillas plegables para ingeniería hidráulica, et

On Sensor-Controlled Robotized One-off Manufacturing

A semi-automatic task oriented system structure has been developed and tested on an arc welding application. In normal industrial robot programming, the path is created and the process is based upon the decided path. Here a process-oriented method is proposed instead. It is natural to focus on the process, since the path is in reality a result of process needs. Another benefit of choosing process focus, is that it automatically leads us into task oriented thoughts, which in turn can be split in sub-tasks, one for each part of the process with similar process-characteristics. By carefully choosing and encapsulating the information needed to execute a sub-task, this component can be re-used whenever the actual subtask occurs. By using virtual sensors and generic interfaces to robots and sensors, applications built upon the system design do not change between simulation and actual shop floor runs. The system allows a mix of real- and simulated components during simulation and run-time

An Ontological Approach to Representing the Product Life Cycle

The ability to access and share data is key to optimizing and streamlining any industrial production process. Unfortunately, the manufacturing industry is stymied by a lack of interoperability among the systems by which data are produced and managed, and this is true both within and across organizations. In this paper, we describe our work to address this problem through the creation of a suite of modular ontologies representing the product life cycle and its successive phases, from design to end of life. We call this suite the Product Life Cycle (PLC) Ontologies. The suite extends proximately from The Common Core Ontologies (CCO) used widely in defense and intelligence circles, and ultimately from the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which serves as top level ontology for the CCO and for some 300 further ontologies. The PLC Ontologies were developed together, but they have been factored to cover particular domains such as design, manufacturing processes, and tools. We argue that these ontologies, when used together with standard public domain alignment and browsing tools created within the context of the Semantic Web, may offer a low-cost approach to solving increasingly costly problems of data management in the manufacturing industry

Optimal Power Flow with Step-Voltage Regulators in Multi-Phase Distribution Networks

This paper develops a branch-flow based optimal power flow (OPF) problem for multi-phase distribution networks that allows for tap selection of wye, closed-delta, and open-delta step-voltage regulators (SVRs). SVRs are assumed ideal and their taps are represented by continuous decision variables. To tackle the non-linearity, the branch-flow semidefinite programming framework of traditional OPF is expanded to accommodate SVR edges. Three types of non-convexity are addressed: (a) rank-1 constraints on non-SVR edges, (b) nonlinear equality constraints on SVR power flows and taps, and (c) trilinear equalities on SVR voltages and taps. Leveraging a practical phase-separation assumption on the SVR secondary voltage, novel McCormick relaxations are provided for (c) and certain rank-1 constraints of (a), while dropping the rest. A linear relaxation based on conservation of power is used in place of (b). Numerical simulations on standard distribution test feeders corroborate the merits of the proposed convex formulation.Comment: This manuscript has been submitted to IEEE Transactions on Power System