Analytic Verification of Flight Software

IN THE REALM OF SPACE EXPLOration, the biggest obstacle to widespread application of autonomy in flight software is not technical feasibility; it is doubt about its trustworthiness as a replacement for humanin-the-loop decision-making. Autonomous control systems raise difficult verification and validation issues. V&V techniques are needed that significantly increase confidence in these decision-making systems. The key to acceptance of this technology is not hit-or-miss testing but thorough V&V methods that yield guarantees. We’ve developed such a method that applies two analyticverification approaches: design-time model checking that guarantees that specific conditions are never violated, and runtime embedded behavior auditors to verify that the implemented integrated system respects similar conditions. Together, they make verification activities part of design and development, not just a back-end step.