System/Embedded Software Development Process

SafeTRANS addresses the following challenges in its research area System and Embedded Software Development Process

• Models: to develop mathematical models of design entities covering the entire design space for complex safety-critical embedded systems.
• Analysis: to develop scalable, mathematically rigorous analysis methods for cross-domain, cross-layer, and cross-viewpoint analysis for complex safety-critical embedded systems.
• Design: to develop a design theory for complex safety-critical embedded systems allowing their modular construction with guaranteed compliance to system-level requirements.
• Testing: to develop a comprehensive testing theory and technology for complex embedded systems.

Example Projects

SFB/TR 14 AVACS. The DFG-funded Collaborative Transregional Research Center AVACS (Automatic Verification and Analysis of Complex Systems, http://www.avacs.org) is carried out jointly between the CvO University Oldenburg (coordinating university), Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg and Saarland University, the Max-Planck Institute Informatik in Saarbrücken and ETH Zurich. The project addresses the rigorous mathematical analysis of models of complex safety critical computerized systems, such as aircrafts, trains, cars, or other artifacts, whose failure can endanger human life. It aims to advance the state of the art in automatic verification and analysis techniques from its current level, where it is applicable only to isolated facets (e.g., concurrency, time, continuous control, stability, dependability), to a level allowing a comprehensive and holistic verification of such systems.

Speeds. Speeds is a concerted effort to define the new generation of methodologies, processes and supporting tools for safety-critical embedded system design. They will enable European systems industry to evolve from model-based design of hardware/software systems, towards integrated component based construction of complete virtual system models. Speeds aims at improving substantially the competitiveness of the European industry in this critical economic sector by marrying design competence with deep technical insights and theoretical foundations. Speeds partners are companies active in the entire supply chain: OEMs, suppliers, and tool vendors, supported by leading European research institutions.

OPRAIL. This BMBF project provides a process for the development of on board train systems conformant to the ETCS standard, meeting the requirements of CENELEC norms 50126, 50128, and 50129 on the software and systems development process and the RAMS process.

SAFEAIR 1 und 2. The IST project SafeAir demonstrated successfully an improved development process of complex embedded control system in the avionics context by integration of widely used CASE tools, and enhanced these with formal verification methods for achieving highly dependable system designs. The follow-up project SafeAir 2 secured and improved the SafeAir results focusing on the industrial adoption of the technology for key users in the aeronautics and the automotive sectors.

VICTORIA (Validation Platform for Aircraft Electronic System).This European research project developed and implemented a novel testing strategy for the new generation of aircraft controllers which is currently used for testing control systems in the Airbus A380.

Trustsoft. The successful deployment of software systems depends on the extent we trust these systems. It is crucial to understand that trust is a much border concept than security. In fact, trust is given by several properties, such as safety, correctness, reliability, availability, privacy, performance, and certification. The graduate school Trustsoft contributes to this comprehensive view on trusted software systems by bundling the Oldenburg computing science competences with those of computer law.

USE. The USE project within the DFG SPP on integration of engineering notations for the design of embedded systems focuses on the semantic integration of four visual formalisms, Timing Diagrams, Live Sequence Charts, Statemate, and UML's behavioral modeling capabilities, as well as on the development of formal verification methods.

NoE ARTIST - Advanced Real-Time Systems. The Network of Excellence ARTIST and its successor project ARTIST2 combine the leading European Research Centers on the development of real-time systems in developing roadmaps for R&D.

OMEGA - This IST project is promoting a UML-based methodology for the development of embedded real-time applications, including support for formal verification. The project combines end-users from such diverse application domains as telecom (France Telecom), space (NLR), and avionics (IAI).

ViSEK, VSEK - Virtuelles Software-Engineering-Kompetenzzentrum. These BMBF funded projects aim at providing easy access for SMEs to key competences in software-engineering, through providing a comprehensive knowledge base through its portal http://www.software-kompetenz.de/

EASIS - Electronic Achitecture and System Engineering for Integrated Safety Systems (EU – IST). While today there are already many safety systems integrated into the car, further improvement can be achieved by a close coupling of the various systems combined with new telematics services. The implementation of such integrated safety systems requires a powerful and highly reliable electronics architecture as well as support for the development process. These elements must be standardized to achieve an improvement in system quality with shorter development times and lower system costs. The goal of the EASIS project is to define and develop these enabling technologies.

Verisoft - Beweisen als Ingenieurwissenschaft (BMBF). The goal of this project is to demonstrate that the correctness of a complete system – from the application level down to the hardware – can be formally verified. One of its subprojects deals with an automotive system. Verification of ECU hardware is performed by Infineon. Higher levels as bus protocols, operating systems and application layers are studied by University of Saarland, Technical University of Munich and OFFIS.

PolyDyn. This project is part of the DFG SPP „Rekonfigurierbare Rechensysteme” (Reconfigurable Computing Systems). The project contributes to the efficient design of dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs. A design method is being developed, which uses methods of object oriented programming for the specification and modelling of the dynamic aspects of partial reconfigurable hardware. Such FPGAs allow a more efficient usage of hardware resources by time-shared usage of identical resources for different purposes compared to the exclusive use of hardware resources for each task. The concept of polymorphism has similarities to the dynamic behaviour of objects and is used to specify the dynamic reconfiguration as well as to synthesize the hardware and reconfiguration controller.

OOCOSIM. This project finished in 2004 and was part of the DFG SPP „Entwurf und Entwurfsmethodik eingebetteter Systeme“ (Design and Design Methodology for Embedded Systmes). The OOCOSIM project contributed a design methodology supporting the specification and design of heterogeneous real-time embedded HW-/SW-Systems. In the project a concept for Hardware-/Software co-simulation has been developed and implemented, which is based on object-oriented methodologies.

ICODES. The ICODES project is lead by OFFIS and funded by the EU-IST programme with the partners Bosch, Prosilog, ECSI, Siemens, and Thales. The overall goal is the development of new modelling and synthesis technologies for embedded Hardware-/Software-Systems. ICODES complements the work begun in the ODETTE IST-FP5 project by focussing on the design and implementation of components distributed between hardware and software and the communication between them.

Speak2. A project jointly funded by BMBF and Bosch aiming at specification and algorithm/architecture co-design for highly complex applications in automotive and communication. New modelling, specification and design languages, methodologies and tools promise to close the design gap. Various approaches like C/C++-based system description, UML, SDL and Matlab/Simulink are regarded in this project. The SPEAK 2 goal is to evaluate these new languages, methodologies and especially the available design tools, focusing on the integration into current industrial design flows. The evaluation is based on industrial automotive applications.

LEMOS. This project is partly funded by the BMBF and is conducted with industrial partners: Bosch, Catena, ChipVision, Infineon, and Nokia. OFFIS is the scientific coordinator of the project and subcontractor of ChipVision and Infineon. The objective is to develop new design methodologies and tools to enable reliable and available mobile systems in the communication and automotive domain by reducing their power consumption. Special consideration is on the dynamic power of busses and memory accesses as well as on power analysis of entire SoCs (Systems on Chip).

HYBRIS: Efficient Analysis of Hybrid Systems (1999 - 2005). This project has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG and is part of the DFG priority programme SPP 1064: Software Specification -- Integration of Software Specification Techniques for Applications in Engineering. The project integrates description techniques widely used in the engineering sciences (UML, timing diagrams, differential equations, MATLAB/Simulink) with formal specification techniques that have been mostly used in the computer science communities (Timed CSP, Timed Automata, Duration Calculus, Hybrid Automata). Based on a UML2.0 profile developed for the description of Hybrid Systems, a transformational approach has been elaborated allowing to translate hybrid systems specifications into programs executable in hard real-time, with guaranteed consistency between execution behaviour and specification semantics. The integrated application of these techniques is demonstrated by means of case studies from the field of railway control systems.

GESy. In the Graduate School GESy, young scientists develop new processes and methods for safety critical embedded systems in transportation systems.

Link Menü

Alternativ gelangen Sie auch hier zu den verschiedenen Anwendungsdomänen und Forschungsgebieten.

• Anwendungsdomänen
  • Automotive
  • Avionics
  • Railway Systems
• Forschungsgebiete
  • Human Centered Engineering
  • System/Embedded Software Development Process
  • Safety and Certification Process