The VALU3S ECSEL Project: Verification and Validation of Automated Systems Safety and Security

Abstract

Manufacturers of automated systems and their components have been allocating an enormous amount of time and effort in R&D activities, which led to the availability of prototypes demonstrating new capabilities as well as the introduction of such systems to the market within different domains. Manufacturers need to make sure that the systems function in the intended way and according to specifications. This is not a trivial task as system complexity rises dramatically the more integrated and interconnected these systems become with the addition of automated functionality and features to them. This effort translates into an overhead on the V&V (verification and validation) process making it time-consuming and costly. In this paper, we present VALU3S, an ECSEL JU (joint undertaking) project that aims to evaluate the state-of-the-art V&V methods and tools, and design a multi-domain framework to create a clear structure around the components and elements needed to conduct the V&V process. The main expected benefit of the framework is to reduce time and cost needed to verify and validate automated systems with respect to safety, cyber-security, and privacy requirements. This is done through identification and classification of evaluation methods, tools, environments and concepts for V&V of automated systems with respect to the mentioned requirements. VALU3S will provide guidelines to the V&V community including engineers and researchers on how the V&V of automated systems could be improved considering the cost, time and effort of conducting V&V processes. To this end, VALU3S brings together a consortium with partners from 10 different countries, amounting to a mix of 25 industrial partners, 6 leading research institutes, and 10 universities to reach the project goal.

Why just FRET when you can Refactor? Retuning FRETISH Requirements

“…Our fretish requirements are derived from the natural-language requirements for a a highbypass civilian aircraft turbofan engine software controller, provided by our industrial partner on the VALU3S [1] project, described in our prior work [15]. The controller's high-level objectives are: to manage engine thrust, regulate compressor pressure and speeds, and limit engine parameters to safe values.…”

FRETting about Requirements: Formalised Requirements for an Aircraft Engine Controller

“…Aircraft Engine Controller: Our use case is a software controller for a high-bypass civilian aircraft turbofan engine, provided by our industrial partner on the VALU3S [2] project, based on existing controller designs [12,13]. It is an example of a Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system, which monitors and controls everything about the engine, using input from a variety of sensors.…”