A Case Study in Formal System Engineering with SysML

In the development of complex critical systems, an important source of errors is the misinterpretation of system requirements allocated to the software, due to inadequate communication between system engineering teams and software teams. In response, organizations that develop such systems are searching for solutions allowing formal system engineering and system to software bridging, based on standard languages like SysML. As part of this effort, we have defined a formal profile for SysML (OMEGA SysML) and we have built a simulation and verification toolbox for this profile (IFx). This paper reports on the experience of modelling and validating an industry-grade system, the Solar Generation System (SGS) of the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) built by Astrium, using IFx-OMEGA. The experience reveals what can currently be expected from such an approach and what are the weak points that should be addressed by future research and development.

[1]  Jos Warmer,et al.  The object constraint language , 1998 .

[2]  Alain Kerbrat,et al.  CADP - A Protocol Validation and Verification Toolbox , 1996, CAV.

[3]  Iulian Ober,et al.  Timing analysis and validation with UML: the case of the embedded MARS bus manager , 2008, Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering.

[4]  Jozef Hooman,et al.  Supporting UML-based development of embedded systems by formal techniques , 2008, Software & Systems Modeling.

[5]  Gabriel Pedroza,et al.  AVATAR: A SysML Environment for the Formal Verification of Safety and Security Properties , 2011, 2011 11th Annual International Conference on New Technologies of Distributed Systems.

[6]  Sophie Quinton,et al.  A Framework for Contract-Based Reasoning : Motivation and Application , 2008 .

[7]  Iulian Ober,et al.  Formal Model Driven Engineering for Space Onboard Software , 2011 .

[8]  Edmund M. Clarke,et al.  Model Checking , 1999, Handbook of Automated Reasoning.

[9]  Mamoun Filali,et al.  Fiacre: an Intermediate Language for Model Verification in the Topcased Environment , 2008 .

[10]  Iulian Ober,et al.  Unambiguous UML Composite Structures: The OMEGA2 Experience , 2011, SOFSEM.

[11]  Joseph Sifakis,et al.  The IF Toolset , 2004, SFM.

[12]  Joseph Sifakis,et al.  An Algebraic Framework for Urgency , 2000, Inf. Comput..

[13]  Mourad Debbabi,et al.  A unified approach for verification and validation of systems and software engineering models , 2006, 13th Annual IEEE International Symposium and Workshop on Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS'06).

[14]  Sophie Quinton,et al.  Contract-Based Verification of Hierarchical Systems of Components , 2008, 2008 Sixth IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods.

[15]  Ji-Hyun Lee,et al.  A quantitative tradeoff analysis of software architecture using the architecture analysis and design language = AADL을 사용한 소프트웨어 아키텍처의 정량적인 품질 균형 분석 방법 , 2008 .

[16]  Stephen A. Edwards,et al.  The synchronous languages 12 years later , 2003, Proc. IEEE.

[17]  Iulian Ober,et al.  OMEGA2: A New Version of the Profile and the Tools , 2010, 2010 15th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems.

[18]  Roberto Passerone,et al.  Contract-Based Reasoning for Component Systems with Rich Interactions , 2014, Embedded Systems Development, From Functional Models to Implementations.

[19]  Roberto Passerone,et al.  Contract-Based Reasoning for Component Systems with Complex Interactions , 2010 .

[20]  Iulian Ober,et al.  Modeling and Validation of a Software Architecture for the Ariane-5 Launcher , 2006, FMOODS.

[21]  Iulian Ober,et al.  Validating timed UML models by simulation and verification , 2006, International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer.

[22]  Jérôme Hugues,et al.  The TASTE Toolset: turning human designed heterogeneous systems into computer built homogeneous software. , 2010 .

[23]  Ludovic Apvrille,et al.  TEPE: a SysML language for time-constrained property modeling and formal verification , 2011, SOEN.

[24]  Patrice Godefroid,et al.  Partial-Order Methods for the Verification of Concurrent Systems , 1996, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.