Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Event-B at Work: Some Lessons Learnt from an Application to a Robot Anti-collision Function

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
NASA Formal Methods (NFM 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10227))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The technical and academic aspects of the Event-B method, and the abstract description of its application in industrial contexts are the subjects of numerous publications. In this paper, we describe the experience of development engineers non familiar with Event-B to getting to grips with this method. We describe in details how we used the formalism, the refinement method, and its supporting toolset to develop the simple anti-collision function embedded in a small rolling robot. We show how the model has been developed from a set of high-level requirements and refined down to the software specification. For each phase of the development, we explain how we used the method, expose the encountered difficulties, and draw some practical lessons from this experiment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.event-b.org/.

  2. 2.

    http://alt-ergo.lri.fr/.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/Z3Prover/z3.

  4. 4.

    http://cvc4.cs.nyu.edu/web/.

  5. 5.

    http://www.scicoslab.org/.

  6. 6.

    http://formose.lacl.fr/.

References

  1. Cuenot, P., Jenn, E., Faure, E., Broueilh, N., Rouland, E.: An experiment on exploiting virtual platforms for the development of embedded equipments. In: 8th European Congress on Embedded Real Time Software and Systems (ERTS 2016) (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  2. SAE: SAE ARP4754 Certification Considerations for Highly-Integrated Or Complex Aircraft Systems. Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Warrendale, USA (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  3. RTCA: DO-178C, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification. Special Committee 205 of RTCA (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  4. RTCA: DO-333 Formal Methods Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A. RTCA & EUROCAE, December 2011

    Google Scholar 

  5. RTCA: DO-331 Model-Based Development and Verification Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A. RTCA & EUROCAE, December 2011

    Google Scholar 

  6. Ge, N., Dieumegard, A., Jenn, E., Voisin, L.: From Event-B to verified C via HLL, October 2016

    Google Scholar 

  7. Clabaut, M., Ge, N., Breton, N., Jenn, E., Delmas, R., Fonteneau, Y.: Industrial grade model checking use cases, constraints, tools and applications. In: 8th European Congress on Embedded Real Time Software and Systems (ERTS 2016), Toulouse, France (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ge, N., Jenn, E., Breton, N., Fonteneau, Y.: Formal verification of a rover anti-collision system. In: Beek, Maurice H., Gnesi, S., Knapp, A. (eds.) FMICS/AVoCS -2016. LNCS, vol. 9933, pp. 171–188. Springer, Cham (2016). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-45943-1_12

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Singh, N.K., Ait-Ameur, Y., Pantel, M., Dieumegard, A., Jenn, E.: Stepwise formal modeling and verification of self-adaptive systems with Event-B. The automatic rover protection case study. Presented at the ICECCS 2016 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Abrial, J.-R.: Modeling in Event-B - System and Software Engineering. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2010)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Abrial, J.-R.: The B-book: Assigning Programs to Meanings. Cambridge University Press, New York (1996)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Boulanger, J.-L.: Formal Methods Applied to Complex Systems: Implementation of the B Method. Wiley, Hoboken (2014)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Butler, M.: Towards a cookbook for modelling and refinement of control problems (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Su, W., Abrial, J.-R., Huang, R., Zhu, H.: From requirements to development: methodology and example. In: Qin, S., Qiu, Z. (eds.) ICFEM 2011. LNCS, vol. 6991, pp. 437–455. Springer, Heidelberg (2011). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-24559-6_30

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Mashkoor, A., Jacquot, J.-P., Souquières, J.: Transformation heuristics for formal requirements validation by animation. In: 2nd International Workshop on the Certification of Safety-Critical Software Controlled Systems-SafeCert 2009 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hallerstede, S., Leuschel, M., Plagge, D.: Refinement-animation for Event-B — towards a method of validation. In: Frappier, M., Glässer, U., Khurshid, S., Laleau, R., Reeves, S. (eds.) ABZ 2010. LNCS, vol. 5977, pp. 287–301. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-11811-1_22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Savicks, V., Butler, M., Colley, J., Bendisposto, J.: Rodin multi-simulation plug-in. Presented at the 5th Rodin User and Developer Workshop, Toulouse, France (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Yang, F.: A simulation framework for the validation of Event-B specifications. Université de Lorraine (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Singh, N.K.: Reliability and safety of critical device software systems. Ecole Centrale de Nantes (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Leuschel, M., Butler, M.: ProB: a model checker for B. In: Araki, K., Gnesi, S., Mandrioli, D. (eds.) FME 2003. LNCS, vol. 2805, pp. 855–874. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). doi:10.1007/978-3-540-45236-2_46

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Ladenberger, L., Bendisposto, J., Leuschel, M.: Visualising Event-B models with B-motion studio. In: Alpuente, M., Cook, B., Joubert, C. (eds.) FMICS 2009. LNCS, vol. 5825, pp. 202–204. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-04570-7_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Yang, F., Jacquot, J.-P., Souquières, J.: JeB: safe simulation of Event-B models in Javascript. In: 2013 20th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), vol. 1, pp. 571–576 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  23. MIRA Ltd: MISRA-C:2004 guidelines for the use of the C language in critical systems (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Petre, L., Sere, K., Tsiopoulos, L.: Deploy methods: final report. D44, April 2012

    Google Scholar 

  25. Méry, D., Singh, N.K.: Formal specification of medical systems by proof-based refinement. ACM Trans. Embed. Comput. Syst. 12(1), 15:1–15:25 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Méry, D., Singh, N.K.: Real-time animation for formal specification. In: Méry, D., Singh, N.K. (eds.) Complex Systems Design & Management 2010, pp. 49–60. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Méry, D., Singh, N.K.: Trustable formal specification for software certification. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds.) ISoLA 2010. LNCS, vol. 6416, pp. 312–326. Springer, Heidelberg (2010). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16561-0_31

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Behrmann, G., et al.: UPPAAL 4.0. In: Third International Conference on the Quantitative Evaluation of Systems - (QEST 2006), pp. 125–126 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRT Saint-Exupéry, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31432, Toulouse, France

    Arnaud Dieumegard, Ning Ge & Eric Jenn

  2. Systerel Toulouse, La Maison des Lois, 2 Impasse Michel Labrousse, 31036, Toulouse, France

    Ning Ge

  3. Thales Avionics, 105 Avenue du Général Eisenhower, BP 63647, 31036, Toulouse Cedex 1, France

    Eric Jenn

Authors
  1. Arnaud Dieumegard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ning Ge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eric Jenn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arnaud Dieumegard .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA

    Clark Barrett

  2. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA

    Misty Davies

  3. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA

    Temesghen Kahsai

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Dieumegard, A., Ge, N., Jenn, E. (2017). Event-B at Work: Some Lessons Learnt from an Application to a Robot Anti-collision Function. In: Barrett, C., Davies, M., Kahsai, T. (eds) NASA Formal Methods. NFM 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10227. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57288-8_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57288-8_24

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57287-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57288-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation