Some Trends in Formal Methods Applications to Railway Signaling

Fantechi, Alessandro; Fokkink, Wan; Morzenti, Angelo

doi:10.1002/9781118459898.ch4

Cited by 35 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…An overview of trends in formal methods applications to railway signalling can be found in [5,11]. Many other research groups have been using model-checking for the verification of interlocking systems.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applied Bounded Model Checking for Interlocking System Designs

Haxthausen

Peleskã

Pinger

2014

Software Engineering and Formal Methods

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In this paper the verification and validation of interlocking systems is investigated. Reviewing both geographical and route-related interlocking, the verification objectives can be structured from a perspective of computer science into (1) verification of static semantics, and (2) verification of behavioural (operational) semantics. The former checks that the plant model -that is, the software components reflecting the physical components of the interlocking system -has been set up in an adequate way. The latter investigates trains moving through the network, with the objective to uncover potential safety violations. From a formal methods perspective, these verification objectives can be approached by theorem proving, global, or bounded model checking. This paper explains the techniques for application of bounded model checking techniques, and discusses their advantages in comparison to the alternative approaches.

show abstract

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applied Bounded Model Checking for Interlocking System Designs

Haxthausen

Peleskã

Pinger

2014

Software Engineering and Formal Methods

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Railway control systems and signalling designs are a fertile ground for formal methods. See [1,11] for an overview over various approaches and pointers to the literature, applying formal methods in various phases of railway design. For a slightly more dated state-of-the-art survey, see [16].…”

Section: Conclusion Related and Further Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rule-Based Consistency Checking of Railway Infrastructure Designs

Luteberget

Johansen

Steffen

2016

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Railway systems designs deal with complex and large-scale, safety-critical infrastructures, where formal methods play an important role, especially in verifying the safety of so-called interlockings through model checking. Model checking deals with state change and rather complex properties, usually incurring considerable computational burden. In contrast to this, we focus on static infrastructure properties, based on design guidelines and heuristics. The purpose is to automate much of the manual work of the railway engineers through software that can do verification on-the-fly. In consequence, this paper describes the integration of formal methods into the design process, by formalizing relevant technical rules and expert knowledge. We employ a variant of Datalog and use the standardized "railway markup language" railML as basis and exchange format for the formalization. We describe a prototype tool and its (ongoing) integration in industrial railway CAD software. We apply this tool chain in a Norwegian railway project, the upgrade of the Arna railway station.

show abstract

“…An overview and our brief evaluation of them can be found in the technical report [34], and a more general overview of Datalog tools can be found in the Wikipedia page. 12 Table 3 compares the running time and memory usage for the verification case study of Arna station presented in Sect. 6, extended to use the incremental capabilities of XSB Prolog.…”

Section: Tools and Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…See [3,12] for an overview of various approaches and pointers to the literature, applying formal methods in various phases of railway design. For a slightly more dated state-of-the-art survey, see [22].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient verification of railway infrastructure designs against standard regulations

Luteberget

Johansen

2017

Form Methods Syst Des

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In designing safety-critical infrastructures s.a. railway systems, engineers often have to deal with complex and large-scale designs. Formal methods can play an important role in helping automate various tasks. For railway designs formal methods have mainly been used to verify the safety of so-called interlockings through model checking, which deals with state change and rather complex properties, usually incurring considerable computational burden (e.g., the state-space explosion problem). In contrast, we focus on static infrastructure models, and are interested in checking requirements coming from design guidelines and regulations, as usually given by railway authorities or safety certification bodies. Our goal is to automate the tedious manual work that railway engineers do when ensuring compliance with regulations, through using software that is fast enough to do verification on-the-fly, thus being able to be included in the railway design tools, much like a compiler in an IDE. In consequence, this paper describes the integration into the railway design process of formal methods for automatically extracting railway models from the CAD railway designs and for describing relevant technical regulations and expert knowledge as properties to be checked on the models. We employ a variant of Datalog and use the standardized "railway markup language" railML as basis and exchange format for the formalization. We developed a prototype tool and integrated it in industrial railway CAD software, developed under the name RailCOMPLETE . This on-the-fly verification tool is a help for the engineer while doing the designs, and is not a replacement to other more heavy-weight software like for doing interlocking verification or capacity analysis. Our tool, through the export into railML, can be easily integrated with these other tools. We apply our tool chain in a Norwegian railway project, the upgrade of the Arna railway station.

show abstract

Some Trends in Formal Methods Applications to Railway Signaling

Cited by 35 publications

References 27 publications

Applied Bounded Model Checking for Interlocking System Designs

Applied Bounded Model Checking for Interlocking System Designs

Rule-Based Consistency Checking of Railway Infrastructure Designs

Efficient verification of railway infrastructure designs against standard regulations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About