SysML-based and Prolog-supported FMEA

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a well-known technique for evaluating the effects of potential failure modes of components of a system. It is a crucial reliability and safety engineering activity for critical systems requiring systematic inductive reasoning from postulated component failures. We present an approach based on SysML and Prolog to support the tasks of an FMEA analyst. SysML block diagrams of the system under analysis are annotated with valid and error states of components and of their input flows, as well as with the logical conditions that may determine erroneous outputs. From the annotated model, a Prolog knowledge base is automatically built, transparently to the analyst. This can then be queried, e.g., to obtain the flows’ and blocks’ states that lead to system failures, or to trace the propagation of faults. The approach is suited for integration in modern model-driven system design processes. We describe a proof-of-concept implementation based on the Papyrus modeling tool under Eclipse, and show a demo example.