Model-Based Auto Coding of Embedded Control Software with Full Semantics

Abstract

Control software is one of the most important elements of safety-critical systems, whether it is used in aerospace, automotive, naval or medical engineering. Control software is used, for example, to regulate the altitude of an aircraft, the speed of an automobile, the heading of a ship or the intensity of an ion beam.

The design of modern embedded software requires that its functional and non functional semantics, including those of the entire system, be expressed clearly within the software to support its correctness at all levels of its implementation. Such semantics must be expressed in languages adapted to the different levels of software implementation and the systems they interact with. Therefore, block diagrams used by control theorists must also be able to support semantic properties, such as stability and performance, and their proofs. Software implementations of these block diagrams must be, correspondingly, fully documented with the same properties and their proofs, in such a way that they can be automatically parsed and verified.