June 2010:

Triakis Completes Software Assurance Research Effort with NASA Johnson Space Center Team

Triakis completed it's fourth year of a joint research effort with a team of researchers at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). This applied research was focused on exploring automated methods of extracting models and visualizations from project documentation, to create an integrated tool for system and software safety analysis. Our team successfully produced a tool that integrated information automatically extracted from:

• Interface Requirements Documents (IRD)
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Hazard Reports (HR)
• Fault Detection, Isolation and Response (FDIR)

in addition to failure mode test methods and results produced in a Triakis VSIL.

Triakis developed a system-level VSIL simulation of selected elements of NASA's Orion Launch Abort System (LAS) with the capabilities of automated extraction of failure modes identified in FMEA documents, and automated creation of failure mode (FM) test framework files. The new automation capability developed by Triakis made use of xml files that the JSC group generated from parsing the LAS project's FMEA documents. Part nomenclatures used in the FMEAs were automatically mapped to the VSIL part nomenclatures during the process of creating FM test framework files for each FMEA item. Each auto-generated FM test framework file contains the identification of the VSIL part instance(s) for which the test is targeted, along with descriptions of the failure mode, cause, and effects as documented in the FMEA entry. Linked to its corresponding FMEA by file name, each auto-generated FM test framework file contains all the available information necessary to code the failure modes within the target part, and to code the FM test method.

By integrating key information from diverse, uncoordinated and evolving documents together with a means of access to the results of FM testing, our research has produced a tool providing a single point of access for review and analysis of critical information by safety engineers. Combined with automation of document information extraction, this tool will enable safety engineers to improve the quality and efficiency of their work.

**View animation of NASA Orion Launch Abort System test**