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ELISA Project Achievements and Updates

By March 5, 2025Blog, Working Group

Written by Gabriele Paoloni, ELISA Project Governing Board Chair, and Philipp Ahmann, ELISA Project TSC Chair

The ELISA community held its annual project updates virtually on February 12 – 13, 2025, bringing together members and newcomers. Working group leaders shared their 2024 accomplishments, challenges, and collaborative opportunities for 2025. All videos can be found on the ELISA Project Youtube Channel in the Annual Update Playlist.

2024: A Year of Significant Progress

There was substantial progress for ELISA including: 

  • The Aerospace Working Group significantly advanced the adoption of Linux in safety-critical aerospace applications, presenting successful sessions at the Linux Plumbers Conference that led to the formation of the Space Grade Linux initiative at a NASA-hosted ELISA workshop. 
  • Meanwhile, the System Working Group impressed at Embedded World with a demo of reproducible heterogeneous software composition. 
  • The Medical Device Working Group completed its STPA analysis for the Open APS use case and is now searching for a new project. 
  • The Tool Working Group released initial versions of several key tools (Basil, KS-Nav, llvm-cov, and DeltaKernel).
  • The Safety Architecture Working Group improved Linux Kernel documentation based on safety standards, presenting their findings at Linux Plumbers 2024 and subsequently developing a template for Linux Kernel Requirements. 
  • The Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems working group completed investigations about the minimal Linux Kernel configuration and focused on the minimal set Kernel features required to support a safety application (the main goal being to figure out the Kernel subsystems and drivers to prioritize for safety activities).
  • The Open Source Engineering Process Working Group focused on best practices for safety-critical FOSS contributions, analyzing the factors that could impact the safety strategy associated with the use of Linux and finally it defined an approach for publishing peer-review material developed by the different working groups.

2025: Collaborative Goals and Technical Advancements

The ELISA Project 2025 vision centers on coordinating working groups towards shared technical and community goals including: 

  • The Automotive Working Group will define a use case and collaborate with the Eclipse SDV project. 
  • The Aerospace Working Group will partner with the Architecture Working Group on Kernel requirements for a Cabin Lighting use case.
  • The Architecture Working Group will upstream initial requirements and a management framework to the Linux Kernel, establishing a community baseline before collaborating on further requirements definition. 
  • The Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group will define requirements and analyze key drivers and subsystems for safety applications. 
  • The Open Source Engineering Process Working Group will continue defining best methodologies, including developing processes for documentation review and publishing, and a supply chain responsibilities model. 
  • The Tool Working Group will experiment with its tools across software lifecycle phases. 
  • The System Working Group will launch the “Good Practices in Open Source” specification/standard and extend its development platform to new ARM-based hardware. Collaboration with the Kernel-CI project will also allow for the evaluation of existing Kernel tests and their mapping to Kernel specifications and requirements.

Looking Ahead and Invitation to Participate

The achievements of 2024 provide a strong foundation for the ambitious goals set for 2025. We are excited about the collaborative opportunities ahead and the potential impact of the work on the safety and reliability of open-source systems in critical sectors. We encourage anyone interested in contributing to these efforts to join the ELISA community. Your expertise and dedication can significantly advance our progress toward a safer and more reliable open-source ecosystem. Visit https://elisa.tech/ to learn more and get involved.

Finally ELISA should also consider the evaluation of the currently available Kernel tests, in collaboration with the Kernel-CI project, and the respective mapping to the Kernel specifications and requirements.

ELISA Project Resources:

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