Welcome to AUTOGEF!

The AUTOGEF Project is an international research project for developing an FDIR development and V&V process. It is based on the COMPASS project, which it extends by new functionalities.

The project was started in April 2012 and was concluded in July 2013. The consortium consists of the European Space Agency (funder), Thales Alenia Space France (industrial subcontractor), GMV Aerospace and Defence (Prime Contractor) and Fondazione Bruno Kessler (research subcontractor).

Motivations

  • Taking into account existing technical issues, development phasing, and schedule constraints concerning FDIR development, an innovative, system dependability oriented FDIR development approach is required, based on rigorous formal techniques, possibility of application in the early development stages, with short automated development iterations.
  • To achieve the required level of software systems dependability a dedicated FDIR development approach is needed able to provide a Model-Based FDIR development from the early Software and System architectural design phases, and allowing for effective use of the available Software and System design and corresponding RAMS analysis data.
  • This approach allows for FDIR design in accordance with the FDIR requirements, specified Software and System architectural design, and satisfying the System-level dependability requirements. The approach fits into the System-Software Co-Engineering environment developed in the COMPASS project and leverages the SLIM modelling for architecture, nominal and fault behaviour, and the results of the automated analyses (e.g., FMEA/FMECA, FTA and Diagnosability).
  • Based on the available SLIM model(s) data and analyses results, synthesis techniques shall provide facilities for automated generation of the FDIR sub-system(s). The approach shall also take into account current FDIR architectures and strategies.

Study Objectives

  • The global objective of AUTOGEF is to demonstrate that synthesis approaches, in the context of the System-Software Co-Engineering environment, can allow for effective automated FDIR development in accordance with the dependability requirements.
  • The main focus is on the model-based automated model generation for FDIR. This study can be considered as a direct follow-on of the ESA TRP COMPASS (Correctness, Modelling and Performance of Aerospace System). This global objective comprises the following goals:
    • Evaluation of the system/controller synthesis techniques and definition of the Automated Model Generation approach suited for FDIR sub-system development. The approach is compatible with the modelling and analyses provided by the COMPASS environment, as well as with the current FDIR architectures and strategies. The generated FDIR models(s) are provided in the SLIM formalism;
    • Development of the Automated Model Generation Toolset for FDIR (AUTOGEF) implementing the defined synthesis approach as an add-on to the COMPASS Toolset. The AUTOGEF component shall be able to extract the necessary System-Software SLIM models information, as well as the required COMPASS analyses results. It is to be remarked that COMPASS assumes that the aspects related to the problem of synthesizing any of the elements (Fault Detection, Fault Isolation, Fault Recovery) of the FDIR, is manually codified by the designer. The development of the AUTOGEF component allows automating this process.
    • Demonstration of the approach on a case study and evaluation of the results in terms of applicability, scalability, usability, and performance. The case-study for the evaluation activities is based on a sub-set of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of the EXOMARS project.
    • Evaluation of adequacy of the approach and developed technology for its use in the context of critical on-board space systems and software development. Evaluation of the developed approach and technology in the context of the FDIR development process lifecycle. Evaluation of the relation to and impact on the current industrial practices and processes in the context of the corresponding ECSS standards.