Citation:

Jawahar Thangavelu, 2022. "Ensuring Compliance with DO-178C: Advanced Techniques in Avionics Software Verification", ESP Journal of Engineering & Technology Advancements, 2(1): 135-146.

Abstract:

The DO-178C standard includes specific rules for software implemented in airborne systems to meet aviation's functional safety and reliability criteria. This paper focuses on some modern forms of avionics software verification following DO-178C. Stress is made on how new-age verification techniques, such as model-based design, static analysis, automatic test generation, and formal verification, work in the real world. The document also assesses the performance of such techniques based on how problems related to safety-critical aspects are solved and how the traceability and certification times are optimized. The proposed framework incorporates the current best practices in verification together with the compliance processes to ensure that safety is not compromised while efficiency is improved. These approaches are illustrated by case studies and experimental results, revealing practical approaches to attaining certifiable software with a small number of flaws. Keywords are DO-178C, software verification, avionics safety, formal methods, and traceability.

References:

[1] Moy, Y., Ledinot, E., Delseny, H., Wiels, V., & Monate, B. (2013). Testing or formal verification: Do-178c alternatives and industrial experience. IEEE Software, 30(3), 50-57.

[2] Gigante, G., & Pascarella, D. (2012, October). Formal methods in avionic software certification: the DO-178C perspective. In International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation (pp. 205-215). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[3] Rierson, L. (2017). Developing safety-critical software: a practical guide for aviation software and DO-178C compliance. CRC Press.

[4] Youn, W. K., Hong, S. B., Oh, K. R., & Ahn, O. S. (2015). Software certification of safety-critical avionic systems: DO-178C and its impacts. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, 30(4), 4-13.

[5] Bhatt, D., Hall, B., Murugesan, A., Oglesby, D., Bush, E., Engstrom, E., ... & Pelican, M. (2017, March). Opportunities and challenges for formal methods tools in the certification of avionics software. In 2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference (pp. 1-20). IEEE.

[6] de la Cámara, P., Castro, J. R., Gallardo, M. D. M., & Merino, P. (2011). Verification support for ARINC‐653‐based avionics software. Software Testing, Verification and Reliability, 21(4), 267-298.

[7] Loyall, J. P., Mathisen, S. A., Hurley, P. J., Williamson, J. S., & Clarke, L. A. (1992, October). An advanced system for the verification and validation of real-time avionics software. In [1992] Proceedings IEEE/AIAA 11th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (pp. 370-375). IEEE.

[8] Ribeiro, J., Silva, J. G., & Aguiar, A. (2023). Beyond Tradition: Evaluating Agile Feasibility in DO-178C for Aerospace Software Development. arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.04344.

[9] Russell, D., Moitra, A., Siu, K., & McMillan, C. (2022, January). Modeling a DO-178C plan and analyzing in a semantic model. In 2022 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.

[10] Grant, E. S., & Datta, T. (2016). Modeling rtca do-178c specification to facilitate avionic software system design, verification, and validation. International Journal of Future Computer and Communication, 5(2), 120.

[11] Nordhoff, S. (2012). DO-178C/ED-12C. SQS Software Quality Systems, Cologne, Germany, Undated. White Paper available at http://www.sqs.com/us/_download/DO-178C_ED-12C.pdf, 26.

[12] Moutafis, P., Leng, M., & Kakadiaris, I. A. (2016). An overview and empirical comparison of distance metric learning methods. IEEE transactions on cybernetics, 47(3), 612-625.

[13] Jiménez, J. A., Merodio, J. A. M., & Sanz, L. F. (2017). Checklists for compliance to DO-178C and DO-278A standards. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 52, 41-50.

[14] Dmitriev, K., Zafar, S. A., Schmiechen, K., Lai, Y., Saleab, M., Nagarajan, P., ... & Myschik, S. (2020, October). A lean and highly-automated model-based software development process based on do-178c/do-331. In 2020 AIAA/IEEE 39th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) (pp. 1-10). IEEE.

[15] Marsden, J., Windisch, A., Mayo, R., Grossi, J., Villermin, J., Fabre, L., & Aventini, C. (2018, January). Ed-12c/do-178c vs. agile manifesto–a solution to agile development of certifiable avionics systems. In ERTS 2018.

[16] Stolberg, S. (2009, August). Enabling agile testing through continuous integration. In 2009 agile conference (pp. 369-374). IEEE.

[17] Shahin, M., Babar, M. A., & Zhu, L. (2017). Continuous integration, delivery and deployment: a systematic review on approaches, tools, challenges and practices. IEEE access, 5, 3909-3943.

[18] Shan, L. (2023, September). Towards DO-178C Compliance of a Secure Product. In International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security (pp. 61-72). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

[19] Paul, S., Alexander, C., Durling, M., Siu, K., Prince, D., Meng, B., ... & Stuart, D. (2023, October). Automated DO-178C Compliance Summary through Evidence Curation. In 2023 IEEE/AIAA 42nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) (pp. 1-10). IEEE.

[20] Kästner, D., Pister, M., & Ferdinand, C. (2022, June). Obtaining DO-178C Certification Credits by Static Program Analysis. In ERTS2022.

Keywords:

DO-178C, Avionics Software, Verification, Certification, Automated Testing, Formal Methods.