Publication
Using Virtual Prototypes for Causal Fault Explanation at System Level
Caroline Dominik; Rolf Drechsler
In: 29. Workshop zu Methoden und Beschreibungssprachen zur Modellierung und Verifikation von Schaltungen und Systemen. ITG/GMM/GI-Workshop "Methoden und Beschreibungssprachen zur Modellierung und Verifikation von Schaltungen und Systemen" (MBMV-2026), March 17-18, Würzburg, Germany, 2026.
Abstract
With Virtual Prototypes (VPs), it is possible to significantly improve the debugging process during system design as the
interaction of components can be analyzed and internal variable values can be accessed. But in case of detecting a fault,
it remains challenging to determine its specific cause, as the load of available information can be overwhelming.
To address this issue, we propose to monitor a VP at runtime to extract an under-approximating formal model of the
system behavior, and derive causal explanations by model checking. For this, we determine the sufficient condition of a
failure based on the order and context of events. This is demonstrated using an abstracted controller for a wind turbine,
implemented using a RISC-V VP.