Validity frame concept as effort-cutting technique within the verification and validation of complex cyber-physical systems

The increasing performance demands and certification needs of complex cyber-physical systems (CPS) raise the complexity of the engineering process, not only within the development phase, but also in the Verification and Validation (V&V) phase. A proven technique to handle the complexity of CPSs is Model-Based Design (MBD). Nevertheless, the verification and validation of complex CPSs is still an exhaustive process and the usability of the models to front-load V&V activities heavily depends on the knowledge of the models and the correctness of the conducted virtual experiments. In this paper, we explore how the effort (and cost) of the V&V phase of the engineering process of complex CPSs can be reduced by enhancing the knowledge about the system components, and explicitly capturing it within their corresponding validity frame. This effort reduction originates from exploiting the captured system knowledge to generate efficient V&V processes and by automating activities at different model life stages, such as the setup and execution of boundary-value or fault-injection tests. This will be discussed in the context of a complex CPS: a safety-critical adaptive cruise control system.