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Bits, Flips and RISCs

Nicolas Gerlin, Endri Kaja, Fabian Vargas, Li Lu, Anselm Breitenreiter, Junchao Chen, Markus Ulbricht, Maribel Gomez, Ares Tahiraga, Sebastian Prebeck, Eyck Jentzsch, Milos Krstic, Wolfgang Ecker

Abstract: Electronic systems can be submitted to hostile environments leading to bit-flips or stuck-at faults and, ultimately, a system malfunction or failure. In safety-critical applications, the risks of such events should be managed to prevent injuries or material damage. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges associated with designing and verifying safe and reliable systems, as well as the potential of the RISC-V architecture in addressing these challenges.We present several state-of-the-art safety and reliability verification techniques in the design phase. These include a highly-automated verification flow, an automated fault injection and analysis tool, and an AI-based fault verification flow. Furthermore, we discuss core hardening and fault mitigation strategies at the design level. We focus on automated SoC hardening using model-driven development and resilient processing based on sensing and prediction for space and avionic applications.By combining these techniques with the inherent flexibility of the RISC-V architecture, designers can develop tailored solutions that balance cost, performance, and fault tolerance to meet the requirements of various safety-critical applications in different safety domains, such as avionics, automotive, and space. The insights and methodologies presented in this paper contribute to the ongoing efforts to improve the dependability of computing systems in safety-critical environments.

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A Continuously Updated Package-Degradation Model reflecting Thermomechanical Changes at Different Thermo-Oxidative Stages of Moulding Compound

Adwait Inamdar, Michiel van Soestbergen, Amar Mavinkurve, Willem van Diel, GuoQi Zhang

Abstract: Moulding compounds used for encapsulating electronics typically occupy a large portion of package volume and are most exposed to the external environment. Under harsh conditions such as high temperature, humidity, and mechanical vibrations, constituent materials of electronic components degrade, resulting in a change in their thermal, mechanical, electrical, and chemical behaviour. High-temperature ageing of electronic packages causes the oxidation of epoxy moulding compounds (EMC), forming a layer exhibiting significantly different thermomechanical properties. This reflects in the modified mechanical behaviour of the entire package, which accelerates certain failure modes and affects component reliability. Thus, it is crucial to consider gradual degenerative changes in EMC for a more accurate estimation of the component lifetime. This paper proposes a three-step modelling approach to replicate thermo-chemical changes in package encapsulation. A parametric geometry of a test package was incorporated with the ageing stage-dependent changes in thermomechanical properties of the oxidized layer. The mechanical behaviour of oxidized EMC at multiple stages of thermal ageing (at 150°C for up to 3000 hours) was first experimentally characterized and then validated using warpage measurements on thermally aged test packages and Finite Element (FE) simulations. Lastly, a trend-based interpolation of material model parameters for intermediate stages of ageing was followed, and a continuously updated degradation model (physics-based Digital Twin) was achieved. The proposed model is capable of reproducing degraded stages of the test package under thermal ageing along with its modified thermomechanical behaviour. Its limitations and significance in the domain of health monitoring of microelectronics are also discussed.

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Residual Risk Management Strategies at System Level presented for ACC/LKA Behavioural Competencies

Selin Solmaz, Georg Stettinger, Franz Wottawa

Abstract: Automated Vehicles (AVs) are designed to enhance road safety by utilizing Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that leverage behavioral competencies within the targeted Operational Design Domain (ODD). However, operation within the current ODD always carries a residual risk that must be kept within acceptable limits to ensure safe and robust operation. This paper proposes a system-level residual risk management strategy for ACC/LKA behavioral competencies, which comprises a receive- monitor-transmit concept for hierarchical monitoring functional- ities, a system-level residual risk management strategy, and fault injection campaigns to challenge the implemented multi-layer monitoring functionalities. The proposed strategy is implemented ACC/LKA-driven benchmark example, which demonstrates the efficient and effective handling of residual risks at the system level. The study concludes that targeted ODD and/or related behavioral competence reductions are a promising approach to maintaining the residual risk within acceptable limits. Index Terms—residual risk, operational design domain, be- haviour competence, monitoring, health status, fault-injection

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Which Components to Blame? Integrating Diagnosis into Monitoring of Technical Systems

Franz Wotawa

Abstract: System monitoring is essential for detecting failures during operation and ensuring reliability. A monitoring system obtains observations and checks their consistency concerning requirements formalized as properties. However, finding property violations does not necessarily mean finding the causes. In this paper, we contribute to the latter and suggest introducing model-based diagnosis for root cause identification. We do this by adding information regarding the source of observations. Furthermore, we suggest implementing properties using ordinary programming languages from which we can obtain a formal model directly. Finally, we explain the process of integrating diagnosis into monitoring and show its value using a case study from the automotive domain.

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Finding Critical Scenarios for Automated Driving Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Xinhai Zhang, Jianbo Tao, Kaige Tan, Martin Törngren, Jose Manuel Gaspar Sanchez, Muhammad Rusyadi Ramli, Xin Tao, Magnus Gyllenhammar, Franz Wotawa, Member, Naveen Mohan, Member, Mihai Nica and Hermann Felbinger

Abstract: Scenario-based approaches have been receiving a huge amount of attention in research and engineering of automated driving systems. Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the driving environment, and the complexity of the driving task itself, the number of possible driving scenarios that an ADS or ADAS may encounter is virtually infinite. Therefore it is essential to be able to reason about the identification of scenarios and in particular critical ones that may impose unacceptable risk if not considered. Critical scenarios are particularly important to support design, verification and validation efforts, and as a basis for a safety case. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic literature review in the context of autonomous driving. The main contributions are: (i) introducing a comprehensive taxonomy for critical scenario identification methods; (ii) giving an overview of the state-of-the-art research based on the taxonomy encompassing 86 papers between 2017 and 2020; and (iii) identifying open issues and directions for further research. The provided taxonomy comprises three main perspectives encompassing the problem definition (the why), the solution (the methods to derive scenarios), and the assessment of the established scenarios. In addition, we discuss open research issues considering the perspectives of coverage, practicability, and scenario space explosion

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Smart Monitoring for Safety-Assurance in Autonomous Driving

Georg Stettinger, Franz Wotawa

Abstract: Monitoring the functionality of systems during opera- tion is vital for detecting faults and preventing their conse- quences. In autonomous driving, monitoring is even more critical because of hardly being able to verify all imple- mented functionality. Today, systems comprise many inter- acting components making centralized monitoring less fea- sible and hard to handle. Hence, we suggest a distributed but connected monitoring system that reflects the system’s conceptual structure. In this paper, we outline the foun- dations of a monitoring system, present some applications and show how we use concepts like the operational design domain and requirements for obtaining the required mon- itoring knowledge in the application area of autonomous driving.

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Risk Monitoring and Mitigation for Automated Vehicles: A Model Predictive Control Perspective

Kilin Tong, Fengwei Guo, Selim Solmaz, Martin Steinberger, Martin Horn

Abstract: Despite recent advances in algorithms and technology, self-driving vehicles are still susceptible to errors that can have severe consequences. As a result, effective risk monitoring and mitigation measures for autonomous driving systems are in high demand. To overcome this issue, several specifications and standards have been developed. However, a theoretical framework for dealing with autonomous vehicle hazards has rarely been presented. This study suggests a risk modeling method inspired by ideas from control theory and introduces a Model Predictive Control (MPC) Framework to deal with risks in general. Two application examples are presented. The first example shows how MPC parameters may affect the aggressiveness of the response. In the second example, our proposed risk monitoring and mitigation module is integrated into a visionbased Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system. Simulation results indicate a significant improvement in collision avoidance rate (from 0% to 47% in edge scenarios) during the Euro NCAP ACC Car-to-Car tests with a stationary target, which demonstrates the utility of our approach for addressing various types of hazards faced by autonomous vehicles. Index Terms—automated vehicles, model predictive control, risk monitoring, risk mitigation, functional safety

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Real-Time Autonomous Vehicle Sensor Performance Assessment in Adverse Weather Conditions

Stanislav Svediroh, Ludek Zalud

Abstract: The future of the automotive industry appears to be intricately linked to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and various levels of Automated Driving Systems (ADS). Over the years, numerous companies have incorporated sensors into their vehicles, however, none have yet achieved the development of a completely robust and self-aware system capable of operating safely in adverse weather conditions. To guarantee safety, the vehicle must possess an awareness of its environment and the current performance of its sensors. This includes the ability to detect not only current weather conditions such as rain, fog, haze, and snow, but also smoke, soiling from various sources, and extreme lighting conditions such as glare or low light. It is crucial for the vehicle to detect these conditions in real-time without delaying decision-making systems. This study summarises the effects of various environmental threats on commonly used sensors in ADAS or ADS and proposes algorithms to detect degrading sensor performance, which can then be integrated into the sensor fusion framework utilised in the creation of the vehicle’s local map. The ultimate aim of such a system is to accurately detect and report sensor degradation, enabling subsequent sensor fusion and path-planning algorithms to modify the vehicle’s behaviour and minimise unreasonable risk. Index Terms—ADAS, ADS, Adverse Weather, Sensor Performance Assessment

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Verifying Collision Risk Estimation using Autonomous Driving Scenarios Derived from a Formal Model.

Jean-Baptiste Horel, Philippe Ledent, Lina Marsso, Lucie Muller, Christian Laugier, Radu Mateescu, Anshul Paigwar, Alessandro Renzaglia, Wendelin Serwe

Abstract: Verifying Collision Risk Estimation using Formally Derived Scenarios use formal conformance test generation tools to derive, from a verified formal model, sets of scenarios to be run in a simulator. Second, we model check the traces of the simulation runs to validate the probabilistic estimation of collision risks. Using formal methods brings the combined advantages of an increased confidence in the correct representation of the chosen configuration (temporal logic verification), a guarantee of the coverage and relevance of automatically generated scenarios (conformance testing), and an automatic quantitative analysis of the test execution (verification and statistical analysis on traces).

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Robust perception systems for automated, connected, and electrified vehicles: Advances from EU project ArchitectECA2030

Jakob Reckenzaun; Thomas Goelles; Selim Solmaz; Marc Hilbert; Daniel Weimer, Peter Mayer, Adam Chromy, Uwe Hentschel, Niels Modler, Mate Toth, Marcus Hennecke

Abstract: The perception supply chain (SC1) of the ArchitectECA2030 project investigates failure modes, fault detection, and residual risk in perception systems of electrified, connected, and automated (ECA) vehicles. This accounts for the needs of a reliable understanding of the surrounding environment. The three demonstrators of SC1, described in this paper, address steps of a typical ECA usage cycle: charge - drive - restart charging. The foreign object detection (FOD) demonstrator improves safety within a wireless charging system. The robust physical sensors demonstrator creates a more robust perception by detecting failures within fused and single sensor data. The position enhancement demonstrator improves vehicle localization in areas with reduced GNSS signal coverage. All demonstrators are linked to the challenges that occur during the ECA vehicle usage cycle

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Acknowledgement

ArchitectECA2030 has been accepted for funding within (ECSEL JU) in collaboration with the European Union’s H2020 Framework Programs under grant agreement No 877539.

The project will receive an ECSEL JU funding up to 4 M€ completed with national budgets from national funding authorities in Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria and Norway.  

Project Facts

Short Name: ArchitectECA2030

Full Name: Trustable architectures with acceptable residual risk for the electric, connected and automated cars

Duration:  01/07/2020- 30/06/2023

Total Costs: ~ € 13,6 Mio.

Consortium: 20 partners from 8 countries

Coordinator: Infineon Technologies AG

Funding

 

Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020

 

    

National Funding

National Funding

 


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