Petri Net Modeling and Automated Software Safety Analysis: Methodology for an Embedded Military Application

Abstract

This thesis investigates the feasibility of software safety analysis using Petri net modeling and an automated suite of Petri Net Utilities (P-NUT) developed at UC Irvine. We briefly introduce software safety concepts, Petri nets, reachability theory, and the use of P-NUT. We then develop a methodology to combine these ideas for efficient and effective preliminary safety analysis of a real-time, embedded software, military system. The system under investigation is a proposed air-to-air guided missile safety and arming device, developed at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California. Although this particular safety arming device was never actually constructed, a software prototype was written and tested. This device is excellent for developing a methodology to analyzed safety-critical computer/software-controlled systems. The device is nontrivial, contains embedded software, and if designed incorrectly or tested ineffectively might result in personal injury or unwanted property destruction. Keywords: Guided missile safety.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA200283

Entities

People

  • Adam D. Lewis

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • California
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Explosives
  • Guided Missile Safety
  • Guided Missiles
  • Reliability
  • Safety
  • Safety Analysis
  • Safety Engineering
  • Schools
  • Software Development
  • System Safety
  • System Software
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Mathematical Modeling and Probability Theory.
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.