Destecs

The efficient design of embedded systems is hampered by the separation of engineering disciplines in current state of the art development approaches. A methodology to address system-level design issues across discipline boundaries is lacking and tool support is poor. This “design gap” inhibits iterative and concurrent engineering, leading to sub-optimal designs and long development lead times. Moreover, the design gap is widening because of increasing system complexity and increasing capabilities of the system artifacts used.

DESTECS will create a methodology and supporting open tools platform for the collaborative and multidisciplinary development of dependable embedded real-time control systems. We will develop a methodology combining continuous time and formal discrete event modeling via co-simulation with support for iterative design evolution.

Model analysis will be based on co-simulation and the framework will support explicit modeling of faults and fault-tolerance mechanisms from the outset. Tool support is crucial: the methodology will be supported by an open, extendible tools platform, populated with plug-ins supporting co-simulation, test and code generation. DESTECS does not replace current industry practice but it will facilitate and support the cross-discipline design dialogue by integration of domain-specific best practices. The methods and tools development is driven by industry-led case studies which also provide evaluation of the emerging technology.

The novel aspects of this proposal are the use of a systems-level modelling approach based on co-simulation of formal models, the explicit modelling of faults and fault-tolerance at this level and the support for lightweight trade-off analysis between design alternatives on the basis of extra-functional properties, especially resilience.  In particular, the development of an open tools framework for co-simulation will encourage greater industrial uptake. An industrial follower group is implemented to leverage dissemination.