Robotics Software Engineering and Certification: Issues and Challenges

Pietrantuono, Roberto; Russo, Stefano

doi:10.1109/issrew.2018.00023

“…The development of safety-critical devices considers certification as a mandatory step [1]- [3] since a software failure or malfunctioning can compromise the health of human beings that interact with it. Examples of safety-critical systems certification can be found in avionics [4]- [6], robotic applications [7], cyber-physical systems [8], and healthcare [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons Learned from the Development of a Mechanical Ventilator for COVID-19

Bombarda

¹

,

Bonfanti

²

,

Galbiati

³

et al. 2021

2021 IEEE 32nd International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE)

5

2

0

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, many researchers all over the world have offered their time and competencies to face the heavy consequences of the disease. This is the case of a group of physicists, engineers, and physicians that around the middle of March 2020 started to develop a simplified mechanical lung ventilator, called MVM (Mechanical Ventilator Milano), to answer the high request of ventilators for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in intensive care units. A prototype was ready in around one month.Since medical software malfunctions can lead to injuries or death of patients, before marketing MVM ventilators and distributing them in hospitals, software certification in accordance with the IEC 62304 standard was mandatory to guarantee system reliability. The team was then complemented by computer scientists specifically devoted to this task. The software reengineering process, which lasted around two months from the end of the prototype, brought to a strong re-implementation of the device software components, which involved all the stakeholders in a continuous integration setting.In this paper, we report the experience of the MVM control SW re-engineering necessary to show evidence that the SW adheres to the standards and to consequently obtain the certification. We share results and lessons learned from this social project, where more than 100 volunteer researchers worked towards software certification at the extreme of their strength to get a real device finished in a rush since strongly required to support physicians in treating COVID-19 patients.

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“…As a final remark, we observe that software certification is so challenging that the adoption of the same method or tool across different domains is often impossible. Hence, many domain-dependent proposals exist such as for robotics [197], medical systems [13], the automotive sector [14,260], unmanned aircraft [239,247], and railway systems [72].…”

Section: An Assurance Case Is An Organised Argument That a System Is mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a framework for certification of reliable autonomous systems

Fisher

¹

,

Mascardi

²

,

Rozier

³

et al. 2020

Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst

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A computational system is called autonomous if it is able to make its own decisions, or take its own actions, without human supervision or control. The capability and spread of such systems have reached the point where they are beginning to touch much of everyday life. However, regulators grapple with how to deal with autonomous systems, for example how could we certify an Unmanned Aerial System for autonomous use in civilian airspace? We here analyse what is needed in order to provide verified reliable behaviour of an autonomous system, analyse what can be done as the state-of-the-art in automated verification, and propose a roadmap towards developing regulatory guidelines, including articulating challenges to researchers, to engineers, and to regulators. Case studies in seven distinct domains illustrate the article.

show abstract

“…As a final remark, we observe that software certification is so challenging that the adoption of the same method or tool across different domains is often impossible. Hence, many domain-dependent proposals exist such as for robotics [197], medical systems [13], the automotive sector [14,260], unmanned aircraft [239,247], and railway systems [72].…”

Section: Certification Of Traditional Software Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a framework for certification of reliable autonomous systems

Fisher¹,

Mascardi²,

Rozier³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A computational system is called autonomous if it is able to make its own decisions, or take its own actions, without human supervision or control. The capability and spread of such systems have reached the point where they are beginning to touch much of everyday life. However, regulators grapple with how to deal with autonomous systems, for example how could we certify an Unmanned Aerial System for autonomous use in civilian airspace? We here analyse what is needed in order to provide verified reliable behaviour of an autonomous system, analyse what can be done as the state-of-the-art in automated verification, and propose a roadmap towards developing regulatory guidelines, including articulating challenges to researchers, to engineers, and to regulators. Case studies in seven distinct domains illustrate the article.

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Robotics Software Engineering and Certification: Issues and Challenges

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

Lessons Learned from the Development of a Mechanical Ventilator for COVID-19

Lessons Learned from the Development of a Mechanical Ventilator for COVID-19

Towards a framework for certification of reliable autonomous systems

Towards a framework for certification of reliable autonomous systems

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