Making formal methods practical

Author

Zimmerman, Marc ; Rodriguez, Mario ; Ingram, Benjamin ; Katahira, Masafumi ; De Villepin, Mmime ; Leveson, Nancy

Author_Institution

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Abstract

Despite their potential, formal methods have had difficulty gaining acceptance in the industrial sector. Some complaints are based on supposed impracticality: many consider formal methods to be an approach to system specification and analysis that requires a large learning time. Contributing to this scepticism is the fact that some types of formal methods have not yet been proven to handle systems of realistic complexity. To learn more about how to design formal specification languages that can be used for complex systems and require minimal training, we developed a formal specification of an English language specification of the vertical flight control system similar to that found in the MD-11. This paper describes the lessons learned from this experience

Keywords

aerospace computing; formal specification; large-scale systems; MD-11; formal methods; formal specification languages; impracticality; realistic complexity; vertical flight control system; Aerospace control; Aerospace engineering; Aerospace industry; Computer industry; Formal specifications; Logic; Mathematical model; Mathematics; Natural languages; Prototypes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 2000. Proceedings. DASC. The 19th

Conference_Location

Philadelphia, PA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6395-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/DASC.2000.886879

Filename

886879