Domain-specific modelling methods and related Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) simplify the development of safety-critical systems, but are currently not qualifiable.
To change this, the TALIA project at the Institute of Aviation Systems (https://www.ils.uni-stuttgart.de/en/research/projects/talia/ ) is researching the certifiable framework DOMAINES (Domain-specific modelling for Aircraft and other Environments) for domain-specific modelling. Doctoral student Vanessa Tietz and her team have now succeeded in loading the Open Avionics Architecture Model (OAAM, www.oaam.de ) as a complex domain-specific language into a safety-critical implementation of a model database. This model database is based on a simplified meta-modelling language. It is implemented using the Ada programming language (sometimes also formally using SPARK). Ada has been specially developed for use in a safety-critical environment and offers functionalities to avoid errors and simplify qualification. The implementation of the model database was correspondingly challenging; for example, object-orientation, pointers and dynamic lists were completely dispensed with. Based on the OAAM model, user models can now be loaded and potentially used with DOMAINES as part of qualified tools or flying software. The aim of DOMAINES is to provide a complete domain-specific framework for safety-critical software with model transformation, visualization and qualification artifacts.
