A Formal Model for Stateful and Variant-Rich Automotive Functions

The development of cyber-physical systems such as highly integrated, safety-relevant automotive functions is challenged by an increasing complexity resulting from customizable products, distributed development of specific artifacts, and numerous soft-and hardware variants. In order to reduce the time to market for such scenarios, a systematic analysis of the dependencies between functions, as well as the functional and technical variance, is required. In this paper we introduce a formal model which allows a later on analysis of a function with its different configurations, states, hardware, and software variants. The formal model allows in the next step to represent the functions architecture within a suitable data structure. Therefore, complete safety analyses can be done in one step—opposed to stepwise analyzing all configurations, software variants, and states. Summing up, this article introduces a formal model for automotive functions.