Third semester of AMASS

AMASS is already halfway to the provision of European-wide open platform and community for assurance and certification of cyber-physical systems! This post summarises the progress made during the third semester of the project, complementing previous posts on e.g. the progress during the first semester, the second semester, and the first project review.

During the third semester of the project, the AMASS consortium has worked in the following technical activities: (1) completion of the conceptual approach and design of the second prototyping iteration of the AMASS platform (Prototype P1), (2) definition of the benchmarking and metrics framework to be used by Case Study (CS) realizations, and (3) partial implementation of the main functionalities for the second tool platform prototype.

The first aspect was addressed by work packages WP3, WP4, WP5 and WP6. WP3 was focused on the contract-based design and assurance approach and its integration with functionalities for contract verification and refinement (supported by the OCRA tool). The functions for V&V-driven assurance were also designed by integrating the system design tool (Papyrus/CHESS) with V&V tools. WP4 designed solutions for dependability assurance modelling, contract-based multi-concern assurance and system dependability co-analysis and assessment. The conceptual extensions to the integrated tools OpenCert Assurance Case Editor, CHESS and EPF Composer, and to the external tool WEFACT, were defined. WP5 worked on the update and extension of the functions for seamless interoperability, and on the design of generic tool integration approaches based on the OSLC technology. This includes the traceability functionalities by extending the CAPRA tool and connecters with some external tools for analysis. WP6 designed the AMASS approaches and features for cross and intra-domain reuse. Different functionalities have been identified for semantic standards equivalence mapping, reuse assistant, and product/process/assurance-case line specification. Within WP6, the global AMASS vision for compliance management was also designed, including new features (such as automatic compliance checking as well as generation of arguments), which have the potential to contribute to increased efficiency.

Regarding the second aspect, the benchmarking framework of the AMASS approach has been defined in work package WP1. Partners have focused on creating common metrics that have been derived from the AMASS goals.  Case Studies have also specified their specific metrics to be used in the benchmarking phase. Case studies have also been further developed after releasing the first demonstrators in the previous period.

Regarding the third aspect, the second AMASS Prototype (P1) has been implemented for the main functionalities. On top of the baseline tools (OpenCert, Papyrus/CHESS and EPF), new functionalities have been added to cover the conceptual designs realised as part of the first aspect mentioned above. These also include functionalities for enhanced process definition, connection with the variability tool BVR, improvements on compliance management to filter by criticality levels, and enhanced assurance case patterns specification.

Regarding non-technical activities, dissemination has been again an active area during the third semester of the project. AMASS has organized several workshops and conferences (e.g. SASSUR 2017, Euromicro 2017, DECSoS 2017, and SafeComp 2017). We also organised the first EAB (External Advisory Board) workshop and got very useful feedback that is being considered throughout all the AMASS work packages. We collected revised individual exploitation plans, and made progress on standardisation activities.