Publisher's Synopsis
Model checking is shown to be an effective tool in validating the behavior of a fault tolerant embedded spacecraft controller. The case study presented here shows that by judiciously abstracting away extraneous complexity, the state space of the model could be exhaustively searched allowing critical functional requirements to be validated down to the design level. Abstracting away detail not germane to the problem of interest leaves by definition a partial specification behind. The success of this procedure shows that it is feasible to effectively validate a partial specification with this technique. Three anomalies were found in the system one of which is an error in the detailed requirements, and the other two are missing/ambiguous requirements. Because the method allows validation of partial specifications, it also is an effective methodology towards maintaining fidelity between a co-evolving specification and an implementation. Schneider, Francis and Easterbrook, Steve M. and Callahan, John R. and Holzmann, Gerard J. Ames Research Center; Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA/CR-1997-207043, NASA-IVV-97-014, WVU-IVV-97-014, WVU-CS-TR-97-016, NAS 1.26:207043 NCC2-979...
