The Application of Formal Software Engineering Methods to the Unattended and Remote Monitoring Software Suite at Los Alamos National Laboratory

摘要

The Unattended and Remote Monitoring (UNARM) system is a collection of specialized hardwareand software used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to institute nuclearsafeguards at many nuclear facilities around the world. The hardware consists of detectors,instruments, and networked computers for acquiring various forms of data, including but not limitedto radiation data, global position coordinates, camera images, isotopic data, and operatordeclarations. The software provides two primary functions: the secure and reliable collection of thisdata from the instruments and the ability to perform an integrated review and analysis of thedisparate data sources. Several years ago the team responsible for maintaining the software portionof the UNARM system began the process of formalizing its operations. These formal operationsinclude a configuration management system, a change control board, an issue tracking system, andextensive formal testing, for both functionality and reliability. Functionality is tested with formaltest cases chosen to fully represent the data types and methods of analysis that will be commonlyencountered. Reliability is tested with iterative, concurrent testing where up to five analyses areexecuted simultaneously for thousands of cycles. Iterative concurrent testing helps ensure that thereare no resource conflicts or leaks when multiple system components are in use simultaneously. Thegoal of this work is to provide a high quality, reliable product, commensurate with the criticality ofthe application. Testing results will be presented that demonstrate that this goal has been achievedand the impact of the introduction of a formal software engineering framework to the UNARMproduct will be presented.