Distributed safety assessment for airborne systems: an industrial relevant approach for automated safety analysis and reporting

Development of safety critical systems in the aviation industry is a costly and time-consuming process. Despite the increasing complexity of modern aircraft systems, todays safety analyses and proofs for certification purposes are still performed through a number of predominantly manual, paper-based procedures, which are both expensive and prone to errors. This paper presents a new approach to integrate the most important safety analysis methods Functional Hazard Analysis (FHA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) in a centrally managed model, which forms the basis for an iteractive refinement of specification models and safety assessments. The proposed process favors consistent distribution of specifications to subsystem suppliers through a modularized design technique, seamless and automated safety assessment at component and system levels, and structured derivation of safety proofs for certification. Besides describing the process on a conceptual level, we also show a proof-of-concept implementation for a specific aircraft subsystem scenario.