Acumen : an open-source testbed for cyber-physical systems research

Developing Cyber-Physical Systems requires methods and tools to support simulation and verification of hybrid (both continuous and discrete) models. The Acumen modeling and simulation language is an open source testbed for exploring the design space of what rigorousbut- practical next-generation tools can deliver to developers of Cyber- Physical Systems. Like verification tools, a design goal for Acumen is to provide rigorous results. Like simulation tools, it aims to be intuitive, practical, and scalable. However, it is far from evident whether these two goals can be achieved simultaneously. This paper explains the primary design goals for Acumen, the core challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve these goals, the “agile research method” taken by the project, the steps taken to realize these goals, the key lessons learned, and the emerging language design

Close long-term industrial collaboration : increasing the impact of engineering design research

Godkänd; 2003; 20071128 (kirhon

A Method and Tool Support for Model-based Semi-automated Failure Modes and Effects Analysis of Engineering Designs

Limitations in scope but also difficulties with the efficiency and scalability of present algorithms seem to have so far limited the industrial uptake of existing automated FMEA technology. In this paper, we describe a new tool for the automatic synthesis of FMEAs which builds upon our earlier work on fault tree synthesis. The tool constructs FMEAs from engineering diagrams (e.g. developed in Matlab-Simulink) that have been augmented with information about component failures. To generate a system FMEA, the tool first generates a "forest" of interconnected system fault trees by traversing the system model. This "forest" is then mechanically translated into a simple table of direct relationships between component and system failures, effectively a system FMEA. We describe the architecture of the tool and demonstrate its application on a steer-by-wire prototype. We also discuss its performance and show that this approach could lead to efficient ways of generating useful analyses from design representations

Cooperative partly automated and coordinated vehicles and transports

Automation of vehicles and transports is rapidly evolving from a vision to reality due to systems for local situation awareness relying on advanced on-board vehicle sensors and software implemented intelligence. This evolution will be further supported by the capability to communicate and cooperate between vehicles and with important infrastructure to coordinate the traffic for both safe and environmentally efficient transports. To become accepted among vehicle drivers and other citizens this will require understanding of the problems involved and suitable methods to cope with these problems. This paper identifies some of the problems seen and methods needed

Cooperative partly automated and coordinated vehicles and transports

Automation of vehicles and transports is rapidly evolving from a vision to reality due to systems for local situation awareness relying on advanced on-board vehicle sensors and software implemented intelligence. This evolution will be further supported by the capability to communicate and cooperate between vehicles and with important infrastructure to coordinate the traffic for both safe and environmentally efficient transports. To become accepted among vehicle drivers and other citizens this will require understanding of the problems involved and suitable methods to cope with these problems. This paper identifies some of the problems seen and methods needed

Continuous assessment of evolving designs and reuse of analyses in a model-based technique for semi-automatic Fault Tree and FMEA analysis of complex systems

To deliver complex functionalities in a cost effective manner, distributed manufacturing systems should ideally be based on standard interoperable components and be flexible and easily extensible. At the same time, systems must be demonstrably safe and reliable. In this paper, we argue that to balance these conflicting demands effective safety analysis techniques are required that partly automate and simplify off-line safety assessment. We outline a technique that automates the construction of fault trees and FMEAs and explain how this technique can be repeatedly applied in the course of the design life-cycle on functional and architectural models to enable continuous assessment of evolving designs. Finally, we discuss the issue of re-use of safety analyses and give examples of how such reuse simplifies the assessment

AUTOMATION FOR IMPROVED SAFETY IN ROADSIDE CONSTRUCTION

In this paper, it is investigated how different types of automation would affect the safety forworkers in asphalt paving. The risk for the workers on road construction sites is consistently high incomparison to the average risk of the working population. Automation has been suggested as an alternativefor improving the safety in roadside construction assuming that removing workers will inherently eliminatethe risk of them being injured. In this paper, the potential for improving the safety using automation isanalyzed in detail. By investigating accident statistics and understanding the type of accidents that appear,several different automated functions for increased safety are proposed and described. Based on availablestatistics, it is possible to estimate the safety benefit, as the reduction in fatalities, for several of theproposed functions. The highest safety benefit would be achieved by automating the road traffic drivingthrough the work zones. This has the potential of reducing the total number of road worker fatalities withover 30 %. In addition, it would decrease the number of road traffic accidents in work zones. Automationof construction machinery and dump-trucks also has the potential to increase the safety