XANDAR: Exploiting the X-by-Construction Paradigm in Model-based Development of Safety-critical Systems

Abstract

Realizing desired properties "by construction" is a highly appealing goal in the design of safety-critical embedded systems. As verification and validation tasks in this domain are often both challenging and time-consuming, the by-construction paradigm is a promising solution to increase design productivity and reduce design errors. In the XANDAR project, partners from industry and academia develop a toolchain that will advance current development processes by employing a modelbased X-by-Construction (XbC) approach. XANDAR defines a development process, metamodel extensions, a library of safety and security patterns, and investigates many further techniques for design automation, verification, and validation. The developed toolchain will use a hypervisor-based platform, targeting future centralized, AI-capable high-performance embedded processing systems. It is co-developed and validated in both an avionics use case for situation perception and pilot assistance as well as an automotive use case for autonomous driving.

Model-Based STPA: Enabling Safety Analysis Coverage Assessment with Formalization

“…Assuring non-functional properties for embedded systems is an important part of certification in safety-critical sectors [9], [14]. To assist in this process, an X-By-Construction toolchain [22]. The project focuses on enforcing non-functional properties in the design process of embedded systems.…”

XANDAR: A holistic Cybersecurity Engineering Process for Safety-critical and Cyber-physical Systems

“…One of the project goals is to improve software development productivity and quality for autonomous and distributed realtime embedded systems [12], [13]. This goal can be achieved by providing holistic software design methods and architectures that guarantee functional and non-functional properties "by-construction" defined as [16]: "A step-wise refinement process from specification to code that automatically generates software implementations that by construction satisfy specific functional and non-functional properties.…”

“…In the XANDAR project, the tasks 3 ⃝, 4 ⃝, 5 ⃝, 6 ⃝ initially will be focused on data confidentiality, data integrity and data authentication functions as required by the automotive and avionics application use cases [13]. It will involve:…”

“…One way to approach this complex engineering problem is considering both functional and non-functional properties (safety, security, reliability), and systematically integrating them across system design and operational life cycle. The XANDAR project proposes an X-by-Construction approach [12], [13], which advocates the refinement and adoption of holistic cybersecurity engineering process. It shall allow manufacturers of safety-critical and cyber-physical system manufacturers to scope, identify, analyse and assess the cybersecurity risks and safety hazards [14], [15].…”

“…This paper focuses solely on the non-functional aspects of the project and builds upon previous publications [12], [13]. It presents the holistic cybersecurity engineering process guided by ISO 21434, as part of the initial project planning stage.…”