Safety-critical embedded systems
In the CHARTER project, the development life-cycle of software for safety-critical embedded systems was improved. Development times are shorter and development costs lower for these systems, such as flight control computers in aircraft and control computers in electric cars.
During this project, tools were developed for software generation, machine code generation, formal verification and test generation. The foundation of this approach is the application of model-based development and the Java programming language. CHARTERÂ stands for ‘Critical and High Assurance Requirements Transformed through Engineering Rigour’.
NLR participated in the CHARTER research project for the past 3 years, during which time NLR fulfilled one of its roles as user of CHARTER tools. NLR evaluated these tools by developing a demonstration system (an airconditioning system in aircraft). Other project participants developed demonstration systems for the surveillance domain, medical domain (for example ECG monitoring) and automotive domain (for example control of electric cars). As part of the CHARTER project, NLR also conducted research into various aspects of qualification and certification.
On 27 June, the project was successfully concluded with a final review held at the NLR. The project was executed by a consortium of 11 international organisations, including universities, companies and research institutes from Sweden, England, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. The participants from the Netherlands were the University of Twente, Radboud University Nijmegen, Luminis and NLR. The project was funded by ARTEMIS JU and national financing sources (AgentschapNL for the Netherlands).
