Reusable Functional Failure Test for Safety-Critical Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Complex safety-critical systems become unmanageable with conventional manual Functional Failure Analysis (FFA) methods, leading to inconsistencies and inefficiencies due to large team involvement and repeated components, making it difficult to analyze and update failure modes and effects accurately.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based method for a reusable functional failure test that selects and instantiates components from a first data structure, calculates failure rates, and tests components against predefined rates, using a second data structure to ensure consistency and efficiency, allowing for the reuse of identical items and automatic updates based on sensor data and stimulus signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If manual Functional Failure Analysis is used for complex safety-critical systems, then analysis can be performed with basic tools, but the system becomes unmanageable with large teams and repeated components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the failure analysis into hierarchical levels: system level, component level, and failure mode level. Each level can be analyzed and managed independently, allowing large teams to work on different segments simultaneously without creating unmanageable complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates reusable templates and libraries of failure modes, effects, and components that can be copied and instantiated multiple times across different systems. This eliminates the need to manually recreate the same analysis structures for each component, improving manageability while handling large quantities of repeated elements.
2Ease of manufacture
If manual tables are used to maintain failure analysis data, then implementation is simple, but inconsistencies arise and updates are difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the failure analysis from static manual tables to dynamic data structures with defined parameters and relationships. This allows automated consistency checks and ensures that updates to failure modes propagate correctly through the entire analysis, maintaining stability while enabling easier implementation through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements automated feedback mechanisms that detect inconsistencies in failure mode definitions and notify users. The system continuously validates the failure analysis data structures, providing immediate feedback when inconsistencies arise, thereby maintaining consistency without requiring manual verification.
3Reliability
If conventional FFA methods are used, then all failure modes can be analyzed, but the process is slow and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-defining failure mode templates, effects, and relationships in reusable libraries before actual system analysis. This preparation work is done once and then automatically instantiated for multiple components, ensuring completeness of analysis while dramatically increasing productivity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes of filling out failure analysis tables with automated computational systems. The processor automatically instantiates failure modes, calculates relationships, and generates analysis results, maintaining complete coverage of all failure modes while increasing speed by orders of magnitude compared to manual methods.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer based method for a reusable functional failure test for a specific technical system, e.g., a traffic light system is provided. The method avoids inconsistencies in the functional failure test and reuses items of the respective data structures. Furthermore, the embodiment can identify components or electronic devices that do exceed assumed failure rates and that might be repaired or replaced to keep implementations of the specific technical in the desired failure rate limitations of the analysis, which can be done during the operation of the specific technical system.