Modeling and analysis of software specifications for an autonomous aerial vehicle

The present increase in the usage of software for controlling safety-critical systems drives the need for the development of software safety analysis techniques. This thesis describes the use of a state-machine based approach for modeling and analyzing software requirements specifications, for safety related properties, of the supervisory architecture of an autonomous aerial vehicle. The requirements specification model, developed using concepts from controls engineering, is in a tabular format and specifies the intended blackbox behavior of the system in terms of discrete events. The goal of modeling was to produce a set of specifications that clearly describe the desired system behavior for ease of human review. Analysis focused on identifying safety-related errors in design philosophy rather than implementation. This was done because software requirements errors (or high level design errors) that are allowed to propagate into later phases of the development process can result in tremendous costs and are often the most difficult to correct. Results show that the symbiotic nature of the modeling and analysis techniques was useful in improving software safety. Their application led to the identification and elimination of several hazardous conditions not found during traditional software unit and system testing.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Vuong, Hon Fai, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mark R. Abramson and Eric Feron.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33823

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33823