Vector announces paricipation in EU research project XANDAR

Vector, the embedded software specialist, has announced that it is participating in the XANDAR project initiated by the EU earlier this year.

XANDAR stands for “X-by-Construction Design Framework for Engineering Autonomous & Distributed Real-time Embedded Software Systems”, and was establihsed in order to build up a framework for prototyping embedded software for autonomous systems within the next three years.

Self-learning and connected systems that are used to automate processes in vehicles, airplanes, or industrial production need to operate with very high levels of safety and reliability. In developing these complex systems, any later corrections or changes to the design involve a lot of cost, effort, and added risk. These changes can only be avoided if each and every development step meets high system requirements. And this applies to each individual function (Correctness-by-Construction or CbC method).

The stated goal of the XANDAR project is to build up a framework for prototyping embedded software for autonomous systems. This framework enables XbC design related to timing, safety, and security. It starts with the system requirements and extends to high-level design and code integration based on the CbC method. Together with its partners on the EU project, Vector is contributing not only its expertise in embedded software but also its high-performance development environments PREEvision and the TA Tool Suite.

PREEvision makes it possible to specify connected embedded systems collaboratively and model-based with well-defined semantics that integrate all system levels. The TA Tool Suite can be used to specify, simulate, and validate the time behaviour of complex real-time systems. The two environments are seen as providing a good foundation for setting up the X-by-Construction design framework.

XANDAR is being conducted and validated by a consortium of businesses, research institutes and universities with wide-ranging competencies in embedded systems and software engineering under the coordination of the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT).

The European Union is supporting the project as part of its “Horizon 2020” program for research and innovation.