Today most mechanical systems are being replaced by software-reliant systems that introduce complex features such as lane-keeping and autonomous driving in cars or ground-avoidance systems in aircraft. These systems that interact with physical phenomena are know as Cyber-Physical Systems. Software has increase the capabilities of these systems but also the complexity. Given that the potential life-threatening physical consequences of failures of these systems assuring these systems is one of the big challenges in front of us. The Assuring Cyber-Physical Systems Directorate of the Software Solutions Division of the Software Engineering Institute has been performing research and developing technology to address this challenge. This site offers results from our research that has been made available to the public.
The ACPS directorate has a two-pronge approach to CPS assurance. On the one hand we develop Model-Based Software Engineering technology based on the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) that allow us to analyze early architectural models to discover and correct errors. On the other hand, we also investigate low-level execution infrastructure and code verification methods to allow us to verify the code behavior in terms of timing (e.g., to guarantee that an airbag will always inflate within 20ms), logic (prove that the value produced by the software will be correct), and in sync with the physical processes (e.g., the control algorithm keeps a drone stable).
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