Automatic Derivation of Fault Tree Models from SysML Models for Safety Analysis

Abstract

Safety Critical Systems (SCS) are those systems that may cause harm to the user(s) and/or the environment if operating outside of their prescribed specifications. Such systems are used in a wide variety of domains, such as aerospace , automotive, railway transportation and healthcare. In this paper, we propose an approach to integrate safety analysis of SCSs within the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) system development process. The approach is based on model transformation and uses standard well-known techniques and open source tools for the modeling and analysis of SCSs. More specifically, the system modeled with the OMG's standard systems modeling language, SysML, is automatically transformed in Fault Tree (FT) models, that can be analyzed with existing FT tools. The proposed model transformation takes place in two steps: a) generate FTs at the component level, in order to tackle complexity and enable reuse; and b) generate system level FTs by composing the components and their FTs. The approach is illustrated by applying it to a simplified industry-inspired case study.