Automated Driving Software Verification With Bounded Environment Models
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for verifying software components of automated driving functions, such as simulation-based testing, do not guarantee error detection, especially in safety-critical applications with large state spaces, leading to incomplete coverage and potential safety issues.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that provides an environment model to limit the state space of software components, translating native program code and environment model code into a model checker representation using finite automata, enabling efficient and automated model checking with tools like NuSMV for verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If simulation-based testing is used to verify software components, then testing coverage can be achieved, but error detection is not guaranteed and reliability remains insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces simulation-based testing (mechanical/system-based verification) with model checking using formal methods (mathematical verification). This substitution enables complete and exhaustive verification of all possible system states, providing guaranteed error detection rather than probabilistic coverage, thereby resolving the contradiction between reliability and verification completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the verification approach from empirical testing parameters to formal mathematical parameters. By translating software components into formal models with precise state representations and transition rules, the system achieves exhaustive verification of all possible states, eliminating the uncertainty inherent in simulation-based testing and ensuring complete error detection.
2Reliability
If the complete state space is analyzed for verification, then complete provability is achieved, but the complexity and computational resources required become unmanageable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the verification process into distinct formal components: software component models, environment models, and specification models. Each component is represented separately with defined state spaces and transition rules, allowing systematic analysis. This segmentation manages complexity by breaking down the overall verification task into tractable formal subproblems while maintaining complete provability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces formal models as intermediary representations between the actual software and the verification process. These formal models serve as mediators that capture essential system behavior in a mathematically tractable form, enabling complete state space analysis without directly analyzing the complex original system, thus resolving the contradiction between complete provability and manageability.
3Productivity
If manual translation to model checking representation is performed, then verification can be conducted, but full automation and efficiency are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the verification system to serve itself by implementing automated translation mechanisms that convert software components and environment models into formal model checking representations without human intervention. This self-service capability achieves full automation of the verification process, eliminating manual translation efforts while maintaining high verification efficiency through systematic automated model generation.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for verifying at least one software component of an automated driving function. The method includes the following steps: providing an environment model that limits the state space of the software component to be verified by way of predefinable boundary conditions, wherein the environment model is provided in the form of a native environment model program code; translating the native program code of the software component to be verified and the environment model program code, wherein a model checker representation limited by the boundary conditions of the environment model and intended for the software component to be verified is generated; and verifying the model checker representation using a model checking method.