Reducing the Gap Between Formal and Informal Worlds in Automotive Safety-Critical Systems

Abstract

Presented also at IEEE 5th Annual International System Conference, Montreal, April 2011.The upcoming ISO26262 standard, which deals with the functional safety of roadvehicles, will induce car manufacturers to adapt the way in which vehicle systems are usuallydeveloped. To achieve this, more rigorous development processes along with new tools andtechniques will most certainly be necessary. This paper presents an overview of currentinitiatives at Renault dealing with the improvement of development processes for mechatronicsystems to comply with ISO 26262. It focuses on introducing more formalization in thesystems engineering design process via the definition of an ontology to formalize the conceptsand knowledge of the systems engineering, functional safety and automotive specialty domains(e.g. braking, energy management). The ontology is at the heart of our improvement initiativessince it allows establishing logical consistency of the whole design process. A regenerativehybrid braking system integrated into a full electrical vehicle will serve as the case study for theevaluation of the improvements made possible by the approach