Abstract
SPARK 2014 is a modern programming language and a new state-of-the-art tool set for development and verification of high-integrity software. In this paper, we explore the capabilities and limitations of its latest version in the context of building a flight stack for a high-altitude unmanned glider. Towards that, we deliberately applied static analysis early and continuously during implementation, to give verification the possibility to steer the software design. In this process we have identified several limitations and pitfalls of software design and verification in SPARK, for which we give workarounds and protective actions to avoid them. Finally, we give design recommendations that have proven effective for verification, and summarize our experiences with this new language.
The source code for this project is available at github.com/tum-ei-rcs/StratoX.
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Notes
- 1.
This particular case has been fixed in recent versions of GNATprove.
- 2.
This also has been fixed in recent versions of the embedded ARM RTS.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to the SPARK 2014 development and support team of AdaCore for their guidance and insights.
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Becker, M., Regnath, E., Chakraborty, S. (2017). Development and Verification of a Flight Stack for a High-Altitude Glider in Ada/SPARK 2014. In: Tonetta, S., Schoitsch, E., Bitsch, F. (eds) Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security. SAFECOMP 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10488. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66266-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66266-4_7
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