A Computer-Aided Approach to Preliminary Hazard Analysis for Automotive Embedded Systems

Powertrain electrification of automobiles leads to a higher number of sensors, actuators and control functions, which in turn increases the complexity of automotive embedded systems. The safety-criticality of the system requires the application of Preliminary Hazard Analysis early in the development process. This is a necessary first step for the development of an automotive embedded system that is acceptably safe. Goal of this activity is the identification and classification of hazards and the definition of top level safety requirements that are the basis for designing a safety-critical embedded system that is able to control or mitigate the identified hazards. A computeraided framework to support Preliminary Hazard Analysis for automotive embedded systems is presented in this work. The contribution consists of (1) an enhancement for Preliminary Hazard Analysis to the domain-specific language EAST-ADL, as well as (2) the identification of properties that indicate the correct application of Preliminary Hazard Analysis using the language. These properties and an analysis model reflecting the results of the Preliminary Hazard Analysis are used for the automated detection of an erroneously applied Preliminary Hazard Analysis (property checker) and the automated suggestion and application of corrective measures (model corrector). The applicability of the approach is evaluated by the case study of hybrid electric vehicle development.