Towards efficient functional safety certification of construction machinery using a component-based approach

Electronic systems in the automotive domain implement safety critical functionality in vehicles and the safety certification process according to a functional safety standard is time consuming and a big part of the expenses of a development project. We describe the functional safety certification of electronic automotive systems by presenting a use case from the construction equipment industry. In this context, we highlight some of the major challenges we foresee, while using a product line approach to achieve efficient functional safety certification of vehicle variants. We further elaborate on the impact of functional safety certification when applying the component-based approach on developing safety critical product variants and discuss the implications by cost modeling and analysis.