Reducing Risk by Managing Software Related Failures in Networked Control Systems

Abstract

Managing risk is a central problem in the design and operation of networked control systems, and due to the increasing role and growing complexity of software in such systems, managing software related failures is becoming a central challenge. Even simple programming errors can cause catastrophic failures. Hence, it is vital to contain risks due to software related failures in such systems. Our main thesis is that most software related failures can be managed through relatively simple and generally applicable strategies, and such strategies can be effectively developed and reused with suitable support from software infrastructure such as middleware. We describe mechanisms in Etherware, our middleware for control over networks, for containing software failures, and demonstrate the effectiveness of these mechanisms through experiments in a vehicular control testbed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA482454

Entities

People

  • Carl A. Gunter
  • Girish Baliga
  • P. R. Kumar
  • Scott Graham

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Collision Avoidance
  • Collisions
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Contracts
  • Control Systems
  • Detectors
  • Fail Safe
  • Infrastructure
  • Middleware
  • Safety
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Supervision
  • Supervisors
  • Trajectories

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Software Engineering.