Formal methods and tools for industrial critical systems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Formal methods and tools have become well established and widely applied to ensure the correctness of fundamental components of...     

Formal methods and automated verification of critical systems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Critical (software) systems are all around us. These systems are typically characterised by stringent dependability requirements...     

Formal methods for transport systems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Formal methods and verification tools have been in use in the engineering of safety-critical transport systems for well over...     

Formal verification of algorithms for critical systems

The authors describe their experience with formal, machine-checked verification of algorithms for critical applications, concentrating on a Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithm for synchronizing the clocks in the replicated computers of a digital flight control system. The problems encountered in unsynchronized systems and the necessity, and criticality, of fault-tolerant synchronization are described. An overview of one such algorithm and of the arguments for its correctness are given. A verification of the algorithm performed using the authors' EHDM system for formal specification and verification is described. The errors found in the published analysis of the algorithm and benefits derived from the verification are indicated. Based on their experience, the authors derive some key requirements for a formal specification and verification system adequate to the task of verifying algorithms of the type considered. The conclusions regarding the benefits of formal verification in this domain and the capabilities required of verification systems in order to realize those benefits are summarized     

Formal methods for railway control systems

The term intelligent transportation systems (ITS) refers to information and communication technology (applied to transport infrastructure and vehicles) that improve transport outcomes such as transport safety, transport productivity, travel reliability, informed travel choices, social equity, environmental performance and network operation resilience. The importance of ITS is increasing as novel driverless/pilotless applications are emerging. This special issue addresses the application of formal methods to model and analyze complex systems in the context of ITS and in particular in the field of railway control systems. In fact, modelling and analysis activities are very important to optimize system life-cycle in the design, development, verification and operational stages, and they are essential whenever assessment and certification is required by international standards.     

Formal methods reality check: industrial usage

Based on a systematic survey and analysis of the use of formal methods in the development of a dozen industrial applications, we summarize the methods being used, characterize the styles of industrial usage, and provide recommendations for evolutionary enhancements to the technology base of formal methods. The industrial applications ranged from reverse engineering to system certification; code scale ranges from 1 KLOC to 10 KLOC's. Applications included a software infrastructure for oscilloscopes; a shutdown system for a nuclear generating station; a train protection system; an airline collision avoidance system; an engine monitoring system for shipboard engines; attitude control of satellites; security properties of both a smartcard device and a network; arithmetic units; transaction processing; a real-time database for a medical instrument; and a restructuring program for COBOL     

Preface of the special issue on formal methods in industrial critical systems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - The use of formal methods in industrial critical systems has a lot of potential to increase the quality and reliability of these...     

Formal methods integration for the specification of dependable distributed systems

This paper describes a real-world case study in the specification and analysis of dependable distributed systems. The case study is an automated transport system with safety requirements. In order to manage the complexity of the problem of specifying the dynamic behavior of the whole system, a compositional approach is used, based on the integration of the trace logic of the Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) theory, and stochastic Petri nets (SPNs). It is argued that the integration of different formal methods is a useful approach in the definition of practical engineering methodologies for the specification, design and analysis of complex dependable distributed systems.     

Formal methods for analysis of discrete systems using a specification language

A realization of an algorithm that translates an MSC diagram (an MSC document) into an event equivalent Petri net is described, and the correctness of the algorithm is proved. The net obtained in this way can be used to analyze properties of the original MSC document. The mentioned algorithm is a part of a system designed for verification and analysis of MSC documents. Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 4, pp. 31–56, July–August 2009.     

Recent development of knowledge-based systems,methods and tools for One-of-a-Kind Production

In recent years, product knowledge has played increasingly significant roles in new product development process especially in the development of One-of-a-Kind products. Although knowledge-based systems (KBSs) have been proposed to support product development activities and new knowledge modelling methodologies have been developed, they are still far from complete. This area has become attractive to many researchers and as a result, many new knowledge-based systems, methods and tools have been developed. However, to the best of our knowledge, knowledge-based systems for product development have not been systematically reviewed, compared and summarized. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the recent development of KBS, methods and tools in supporting rapid product development. In the paper, the relevant technologies for modelling, managing and representing knowledge are investigated and reviewed systematically for better understanding their characteristics. The focus is placed on knowledge-based systems that support product development, and how product knowledge is identified, captured, represented and reused during the processes of One-of-a-Kind product development. The limitations and the future trend of KBS are presented in terms of how they can help One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) companies.     

Experience with formal methods in critical systems

Although there are indisputable benefits to society from the introduction of computers into everyday life, some applications are inherently risky. Worldwide, regulatory agencies are examining how to assure safety and security. This study reveals the applicability and limitations of formal methods     

工业控制系统网络入侵检测方法综述

随着工业控制系统(industrial control systems,ICS)的网络化,其原有的封闭性被打破, 各种病毒、木马等随着正常的信息流进入ICS,已严重威胁ICS的安全性,如何做好ICS安全防护已迫在眉睫.入侵检测方法作为一种主动的信息安全防护技术可以有效弥补防火墙等传统安全防护技术的不足,被认为是ICS的第二道安全防线,可以实现对ICS外部和内部入侵的实时检测.当前工控系统入侵检测的研究非常活跃,来自计算机、自动化以及通信等不同领域的研究人员从不同角度提出一系列ICS入侵检测方法,已成为ICS安全领域一个热点研究方向.鉴于此,综述了ICS入侵检测的研究现状、存在的问题以及有待进一步解决的问题.     

Formal syntax methods for natural language

This paper describes on-going research into the applications of some techniques normally used to formally specify and analyze the context-sensitive syntax of programming languages to the specification and analysis of the syntax of a natural language, namely English. The specific formal methods presently being investigated are two-level grammar (2LG) and the Vienna Definition Language (VDL). A preliminary subset of English has been established consisting of fifteen basic sentence patterns. 2LG and VDL specifications are given for one of these sentence types and the syntactic analysis of an English sentence using each of the two specifications is illustrated through an example.     

Environmental decision support systems: Current issues,methods and tools

Development of environmental decision support systems (EDSS) is rapidly progressing. The sustainable management of natural resources has a growing research focus as the awareness of the complexity of interactions between socio-cultural, economical and biophysical system components is increasingly acknowledged. As better data and methods become available, the complexity of the system representation is augmenting. At the same time realism and relevance are increasing and allowing direct support for management and policy development. This article gives the background of recent developments in EDSS and summarises a selected set of papers that were presented at the 2nd Biennial Conference of the International Society of Environmental Modelling and Software (IEMSS 2004). Recent developments show a continuum between integrated assessment modelling and EDSS with varying levels of stakeholder participation in both EDSS development and application. There is a general tendency towards better utilisation of interdisciplinary data, integration and visualisation of temporal and spatial results. Future developments appear directed towards better representation of reality in models, improving user-friendliness and use in a negotiation or group discussion context.     

Quality requirements engineering for systems and software architecting: methods, approaches, and tools

Requirements engineering and software architecture are quite mature software engineering sub-disciplines, which often seem to be disconnected for many reasons and it is difficult to perceive the impact of functional and non-functional requirements on architecture and to establish appropriate trace links for traceability purposes. In other cases, the estimation of how non-functional requirements, as the quality properties a system should pose, is not perceived useful enough to produce high-quality software. Therefore, in this special issue, we want to highlight the importance and the role of quality requirements for architecting and building complex software systems that in many cases require multidisciplinary engineering techniques, which increases the complexity of the software development process.     

Design and development paradigm for industrial formal verificationCAD tools

CAD tool designers have given priority to providing features that will let circuit and logic designers use this custom-memory formal verification and analysis tool without a steep learning curve. This article discusses a few fundamental design decisions behind the successful deployment of a second-generation formal custom-memory equivalence-checking tool, Versys2, in the PowerPC design flows. The Versys2 symbolic simulator was developed at Motorola for verifying equivalence between register-transfer-level (RTL) designs and custom transistor circuit schematics