Safety-driven early concept analysis and development

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fleming, Cody Harrison
Other Authors: Nancy G. Leveson.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97352
_version_ 1811092034755231744
author Fleming, Cody Harrison
author2 Nancy G. Leveson.
author_facet Nancy G. Leveson.
Fleming, Cody Harrison
author_sort Fleming, Cody Harrison
collection MIT
description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T15:11:52Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/97352
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T15:11:52Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/973522019-04-10T23:27:41Z Safety-driven early concept analysis and development Fleming, Cody Harrison Nancy G. Leveson. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Aeronautics and Astronautics. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 180-188). As aerospace systems become increasingly complex and the roles of human operators and autonomous software continue to evolve, traditional safety-related analytical methods are becoming inadequate. Traditional hazard analysis tools are based on an accident causality model that does not capture many of the complex behaviors found in modern engineered systems. Additionally, these traditional approaches are most effective during late stages of system development, when detailed design information is available. However, system safety cannot cost-effectively be assured by discovering problems at these late stages and adding expensive updates to the design. Rather, safety should be designed into the system from its very conception. The primary barrier to achieving this objective is the lack of effectiveness of the existing analytical tools during early concept development. This thesis introduces a new technique, which is based on a more powerful model of accident causality that can capture behaviors that are prevalent in these complex, software-intensive systems. The proposed approach builds on a new accident causality model, called Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process, developing a methodology on the model so that it can be applied during the early concept development stages of systems engineering. The goals are to (1) develop rigorous, systematic tools for the analysis of future concepts in order to identify hazardous scenarios, and (2) extend these tools to assist stakeholders in the development of concepts using a safety-driven approach. This work first develops a methodology for hazard analysis of a concept of operations (ConOps) using control theory to generate a model of that ConOps. Formal, systems-theoretic concepts such as hierarchy, emergence, communication, and coordination are used to analyze the model and identify hazards in the concept. These hazardous scenarios then guide the development of requirements and the generation of a system architecture, defined as a hierarchical control structure. This model-based approach represents a significant departure from the state of the art; in the new approach a concept is defined, developed, and analyzed according to a control theoretic model rather than free form, natural language text. The power of the proposed approach-called Systems-Theoretic Early Concept Analysis-is demonstrated on a concept currently being developed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. by Cody Harrison Fleming. Ph. D. 2015-06-10T19:12:43Z 2015-06-10T19:12:43Z 2015 2015 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97352 910627166 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 230 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Fleming, Cody Harrison
Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title_full Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title_fullStr Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title_full_unstemmed Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title_short Safety-driven early concept analysis and development
title_sort safety driven early concept analysis and development
topic Aeronautics and Astronautics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97352
work_keys_str_mv AT flemingcodyharrison safetydrivenearlyconceptanalysisanddevelopment