Towards Linux based safety systems—A statistical approach for software execution path coverage

Several industrial domains are currently developing innovative safety-related autonomous systems characterized by increasing software complexity and high-performance requirements. Due to these features, different research initiatives aim to pave the way towards the usage of Linux for the development of such complex safety-related systems. However, the high execution path variability of the Linux kernel challenges test coverage-based verification, Highly Recommended (HR) technique by safety standards. This research describes a novel statistical analysis method for Linux kernel execution path coverage quantification, which includes the uncertainty estimation of the software execution. The method is applied to a simple, but reproducible case study, and the results of which are analyzed and explained. 

DOI / link