Method and apparatus for operational-level functional and degradation fault analysis
First Claim
1. A method for analyzing the fault tolerance (FT) capability of a system, the method comprising:
- recording, on tangible media that is accessible by a host machine, a set of calibrated FT requirements that must be satisfied by the system;
using the host machine to generate an operations-level model of the system, wherein the operations-level model includes a mathematical model of the dynamics of the system and control logic for the system in the form of software operations, wherein each of the software operations includes input ports for receiving input signals and output ports for transmitting output signals;
introducing a set of signal errors to the model in the form of at least one of a noise error, a trajectory shift error, a spike error, and a time-line distortion error;
automatically characterizing a behavior of a set of components of the system, as represented by the model, as a discrete lookup table (LUT), wherein the LUT codifies the quality degradation of the input and output signals; and
using the host machine to analyze the FT capability of the system via the discrete LUT with respect to the calibrated FT requirements from the functional specification.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method are provided for analyzing fault tolerance of a system, and performing “what if?” analysis for various fault-tolerant system design options. The fault tolerance analysis approach handles logical failures and quality faults emanating from loss of precision in signal values. The method can detect quality faults, which can allow systems to be built which are resilient to precision losses. Two analysis steps are provided, one static and another simulation-based, which are used in tandem to check the fault tolerance of an automotive or other system. While a simulation-based method checks fault-resilience under specific test cases and fault-scenarios, the static analysis method quickly checks all test cases and fault-scenarios. The static analysis method makes approximations while performing the analysis, and any fault detected is reproduced using the simulation-based method. All analysis operations are performed on operations-level behavioral models of the applications, thereby reducing the cost of analysis.
20 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method for analyzing the fault tolerance (FT) capability of a system, the method comprising:
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recording, on tangible media that is accessible by a host machine, a set of calibrated FT requirements that must be satisfied by the system; using the host machine to generate an operations-level model of the system, wherein the operations-level model includes a mathematical model of the dynamics of the system and control logic for the system in the form of software operations, wherein each of the software operations includes input ports for receiving input signals and output ports for transmitting output signals; introducing a set of signal errors to the model in the form of at least one of a noise error, a trajectory shift error, a spike error, and a time-line distortion error; automatically characterizing a behavior of a set of components of the system, as represented by the model, as a discrete lookup table (LUT), wherein the LUT codifies the quality degradation of the input and output signals; and using the host machine to analyze the FT capability of the system via the discrete LUT with respect to the calibrated FT requirements from the functional specification. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus adapted for analyzing the fault tolerance (FT) capabilities of a system, the apparatus comprising:
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a host machine; and tangible media accessible by the host machine, and on which is recorded a functional specification defining a formalized set of fault tolerance (FT) requirements which the system must satisfy even in the presence of faults; wherein the host machine is configured for; generating an operations-level model of the system, including generating a mathematical model of the dynamics of components of the system and control logic in the form of software operations, with each of the software operations having input ports for receiving input signals and output ports for transmitting output signals; introducing a set of signal errors to the model in the form of at least one of a noise error, a trajectory shift error, a spike error, and a time-line distortion error; characterizing the behavior of a set of components of the model in response to the set of signal errors as a discrete lookup table (LUT), wherein the LUT codifies the quality degradation of the input and output signals; and analyzing the FT capability of the system using the discrete LUT with respect to the functional specification. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification