In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions titled “ELISA and AUTOSAR Adaptive Brainstorm” led by Philipp Ahmann, ADIT GmbH, Huzaifa Saadat, Autosar Experts & Wolfgang Schramm, Continental AG.
AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is a worldwide development partnership of vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, service providers and companies from the automotive electronics, semiconductor and software industry. The ELISA Project started working more closely with AUTOSAR and Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) and now has a Working Group dedicated to this collaboration.
The AUTOSAR Consortium Working Group Safety works closely with the ELISA Project Automotive Working Group. Previously, the group collaborated to figure out which requirements are put to the system and if assumptions from the Automotive WG can fit with AAUTOSAR expectations. The discussions with AUTOSTAR should harden the work within the ELISA Automotive WG. In this workshop video, Philipp Ahmann, Huzaifa and Wolfgang discuss the work within the ELISA Project, collaboration and host a brainstorm about next steps and more. Watch it here:
Click here learn more about the ELISA Project, here for the Working Groups and here to join our mailing list.
In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions led by Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, Principal Software Engineer at Red Hat, and Gabriele Paoloni, Senior Software Architect at Intel, titled “A Maintainable and Scalable Kernel Qualification Approach for Automotive.”
In this presentation, Daniel and Gabriele present an innovative approach that aims for the Functional Safety qualification of Linux by leveraging both ISO26262-6 and ISO26262-8.12.
The goal of this presentation was to get feedback on the approach suitability from a Functional Safety point of view, the approach usability in the current Linux mainline development flow and discuss about the next steps.
If you would like to learn more, Daniel and Gabriele will be giving an updated presentation at Embedded Linux Conference on September 28. Learn more about the session and other ELISA talks here.
Since launching in 2019, the ELISA Project has continued to grow in membership, community contributions and working groups. The project’s more than 20 member companies, which include ADIT, AISIN AW CO., arm, Automotive Grade Linux, BMW Car IT GmbH, Codethink, Elektrobit, Horizon Robotics, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Kuka, Linuxtronix, Mentor, NVIDIA, OTH Regensburg, Red Hat, Suzuki, Toyota and Wind River, collaborate to define and maintain a standardized set of processes and tools that can be integrated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems seeking safety certification.
Today, the ELISA Project is excited to announce that its next technical workshop will take place virtually on November 8-10. The event is free and open to developers, users and contributors of ELISA from around the globe looking to learn, network and collaborate.
The Call for Papers is now open and accepting submissions that will tackle technical strategies for development and deployment as well as real-world applications and use cases. Submit a speaking proposal by Friday, October 1 here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/elisa-workshop/program/cfp/.
The last workshop took place in May with 239 participants from 37 different countries. It featured sessions that showcased working group milestones, open discussions about projects and use cases in automotive and medical. Additionally, this workshop involved more collaboration with adjacent communities, such as Xen, Real Time Linux and AUTOSAR. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here.
The ELISA Workshops are hosted once a quarter and are focused on education and outreach for new community members, the exchange of ideas and feedback from the linux kernel and safety communities, as well as productive collaboration to make tangible progress toward achieving the mission and goals of the ELISA Project.
Registration for the event is also open. You can register here.
In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions led by Jason Smith, Principal Engineer at UL LLC, about the “Linux in Basic Safety Applications.”
Linux is more often being used in applications with safety relevance:
Complex safety-related functions necessitating the advantages of an OS, or
Complex end application necessitating the advantages of an OS, now being asked to perform one or more basic safety-related functions (for example: voltage, current, temperature monitoring)
In both cases, software used to implement the safety-related functions may be required to conform/comply with applicable functional safety standards.
In this presentation, Jason will discuss linux in basic safety applications, the goals and progress of the white paper the ELISA Project is working on and details about how to get involved.
Click here learn more about the ELISA Project, here for the Working Groups and here to join our mailing list.
In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions led by Jochen Kall, Expert Engineer Safety at ITK Engineering on behalf of Toyota about the “Open Source Software Safety Concept Tooling in Freeplane.”
The Automotive Working Group uses an open source software mindmap based tooling for developing and documenting Safety Concepts as well as managing the requirements therein. In this session, an introduction to the tool, its capabilities, and use cases is given, followed by a setup/tutorial session guiding the audience through installation and setup of the tool as well as a demonstration of how it can be used in safety engineering.
Freeplane is available on github ((https://github.com/Jochen-Kall/Safety_concept_tool) and helps Safety/Requirements Engineering tasks with support for: – Avoiding duplication of repeated requirements, leveraging clones – Managing artifact types, ASILs ,etc and their respective constraints – Allocating to architectural elements – Code tagging – Safety Consistency checking – Tainting/Changing Propagation in the tree – Exporting / Importing [WIP]
Watch the video below and let us know if you have questions!
Click here learn more about the ELISA Project, here for the Working Groups and here to join our mailing list.
In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions led by Roberto Paccapeli, Functional Safety Manager at Intel and Vito Magnanimo, Functional Safety Architect at BMW Group, about the “Usability of ISO 26262 2nd Edition for an Open Source Design.”
In the automotive domain, the reference standard for Functional Safety is ISO 26262. The normative does not currently provide a clear distinction between new Software design and pre-existing ones. This limitation directly impacts on open source designs, developed in accordance with non-standardized development process (e.g. Linux operations system). This video presents some of the gaps observed in the standard and introduces hints that can be jointly addressed with ELISA members without losing the cornerstone of the ISO (or in contrast with its clauses).
Click here learn more about the ELISA Project, here for the Working Groups and here to join our mailing list.
The ELISA Project has several working groups each dedicated to a focus or use case. In today’s blog, we’ll take a look at the Tool Investigation and Code Improvement WorkGroup. The Tool Investigation and Code Improvement WG focuses on application of tools, handling the tool results, and improving the kernel based on the tools’ feedback.
Lukas Bulwhan, Safety Software Key Expert at Elektrobit GmbH, leads the Tool Investigation and Code Improvement WorkGroup and recently gave an update about their mission, achievements and roadmap at the last ELISA Project Workshop. You can watch the presentation below.
ELISA Project Workshop May 2021: Tooling Investigation and Code Improvement Working Group Update
In May, the ELISA Project hosted its 7th Workshop with 239 participants from 37 different countries. For a complete recap of the workshop, click here. Today, we’ll take a look at one of the sessions led by Artem Mygaiev, Director of Technology Solutions at EPAM Systems, Stefano Stabellini, Principal Engineer at Xilinx, about the Xen Project.
Tailored versions of Xen Hypervisor are used in mission-critical systems for years, but this was never the case for Xen’s mainline. Starting 2019, Special Interest Group in Xen Project works on identifying and eliminating obstacles on the way to safety-certify Xen. In this video, Artem and Stefano will talk about their approach, progress so far and collaboration with other groups within Linux Foundation.
Click here learn more about the ELISA Project, here for the Working Groups and here to join our mailing list.
The ELISA Project has several working groups each dedicated to a focus or use case. In today’s blog, we’ll take a look at the Safety Architecture Working Group, which aim’s to determine critical Linux subsystems and components in supporting safety functions, define associated safety requirements and scalable architectural assumptions, deliver corresponding safety analyses for their individual qualification and their integration into the safety critical system.
Gabriele Paoloni, Governing Board Chair for the ELISA Project, leads the Safety Architecture Working Group and recently gave an update about their mission, achievements and roadmap at the last ELISA Project Workshop. You can watch the presentation below.
ELISA Project Workshop May 2021: Safety Architecture Working Group Update
If you have questions or would like to join the Safety Architecture Working Group, they meet weekly on Tuesdays from 8-9 am ET (2-3 pm CET). Subscribe to the mail list here: https://lists.elisa.tech/g/safety-architecture.
Written by Philipp Ahmann, ELISA Project Ambassador and Manager at ADIT
Where it all started – The automotive WG
The ELISA Project was launched two years ago by the Linux Foundation. We had our first workshop in person at the BMW training center (Munich, Germany) and the majority of participants with automotive focuses were screaming, “Enable Linux in safety application within the car!” But what happened then?
Since then, the following workshops as well as our weekly meetings, had a strong focus on automotive use cases. There were a lot of participants and a lot of interest but not a lot of volunteers to help with tasks. We kept receiving requests from Toyota, Suzuki, BMW and Automotive Grade Linux (AGL)… In response to this, the Automotive Working Group was established a little more than a year after the launch of the ELISA Project.
From the beginning, while looking for datasheets, reference designs, documentation, and technical concepts, the words “NDA” and “IP” are something we always have in our minds. As a result, we approached the work cautiously as a group:
Concentrated on what ISO26262 showcased about functional safety;
Focused our work with a simulation that is open for everybody;
Stopped saying “could and should” and started using practical examples; and
Pause lengthy discussions about problems that are not Linux specific.
Gaining momentum – The telltale use case
Following these principles, the Automotive Working Group started making progress. We got a good mixture of safety expertise, Linux know-how and automotive backgrounds. We also frequently talk about new things with the curiosity and questioning mindset of a child, which has helped us create a healthy learning environment that is engaging and productive.
Due to Suzuki’s and AGL’s introduced use case, we decided to concentrate on the enablement of telltales (often referred to also as tell-tale) based on a Linux instrument cluster. Thanks to AGL a demo and some high-level ideas were already available.
As we continued our momentum as a group, we recognized that we were spreading our key learnings around in different formats – a bit of source code in a git, diagrams in PlantUML, PowerPoint, or other tools. Documentation was spread over presentations and google docs, so it was hard to create materials and engage interested participants outside the working group. We were determined to continue our momentum and began leveraging tools that would enable others to reproduce and understand our work.
Public means public – The tools
Functional safety projects typically have a very limited set of tools used in the development flow, which have run through a tool qualification. This is expensive because of the license fees and proprietary tools. Putting everything in plain text is good version control and a good baseline, which is key. But monolithic documents make it hard to maintain relationships and traceability – you may even find yourself lost in long text passages.
To make documentation reviews easier and put them under proper version control, we changed from initial sketches in google docs to documentation in GitHub. While also taking requirements in GitHub, we saw they are hard to maintain, put in the relationship and maintain traceability. So the transition was done to maintain them in Freeplane with a plugin developed by Jochen Kall, who is the Automotive WG lead. This plugin also includes e.g. an export script that renders requirements in markdown. Also, the ReqIF exporter is under preparation.
Similar to text, we also had architectural diagrams that the working group converted. We worked to take initial sketches in slide decks and presentations into a storable format. In this case, PlantUML was efficient and easy for us to use.
After this, we recognized that the use case designs end up in the same issue – no relationship between elements within the single PlantUML diagrams, so it was time to change the tool again. The OSS tool we use now is Papyrus based on Eclipse. The files are stored in XML format and in this way can also be put under proper version control.
In the end, all of this hard work has led us to a steady set of tools:
Github for all source code and documentation;
Freeplane to maintain requirements (storable in version control and exportable to text also stored in version control); and
Papyrus for Eclipse.
We are aware that our tools currently used will not survive a safety assessment out of the box, but this is not our intention. The generated artifacts should be shareable so that they can be re-used by others in their established infrastructure. Also, we are targeting to enable others to build safe Linux-based systems and follow the development process for safety integrity standards accordingly. However, in the end, our telltale example will remain an example. A fully qualified product is out of the scope of the ELISA project.
What’s next
So, here we are. Out of creativity and storming team spirit, we settle and start to standardize the tools we use. Version control, review, traceability became major elements of our work.
The practical demo provided by AGL was enhanced to serve the fundamental demands of the telltale use case with a watchdog and a safety app as a codebase. The build can be reproduced with the help of a docker image and the binary can run on qemu.
We still have a long way to go but our goals for the next quarter are:
The use case will be benchmarked against Autosar Adaptive safety requirements and its demands on the operating system; and
Documentation needs to reach a draft state good enough to share with an external audience and to stand critical questions.
The existing Kernel config will be cleaned up towards a slim config (by throwing out unused things) and feedback on our changes to AGL
To learn more about the Automotive Working Group, please subscribe to the mailing list, join our weekly calls and become an active member. Never underestimate what you can achieve with a group. We are happy to welcome additional contributors – get ready to get your hands dirty and have fun with a passionate group of people.
