As one of the partners, IAI will use software upgrade tools for drones
IBM's research laboratory in Haifa will lead a new three-year project within the framework of the European community, which combines industrial bodies and academic institutions, with the aim of promoting new technologies for upgrading software systems, which will enable the identification and prevention of errors in the update processes - even before the errors cause failure or complications.
A research and development consortium established for this purpose anticipates that it will be possible to guarantee a 70% reduction in the amount of functional failures resulting from programming errors in infrastructure software, in addition to a drastic reduction in the time required to verify and confirm the compatibility of a single change or upgrade.
Israel Aerospace Industries, a partner in the project, will use the development results to ensure the reliability of software update processes in computer-embedded systems and especially in the electro-optical cameras installed in unmanned aircraft produced by it, which operate in many versions around the world. The systems can be used for many tasks such as, for example, detecting forest fires, predicting weather on runways, locating missing people, etc.
Dr. Michael Winokur, Head of the Engineering and Development Administration at the Aerospace Industry Headquarters said that "the new technology will make it possible to shorten processes and thanks to this the activity that now lasts for several days can be carried out with maximum efficiency and reliability within hours."
Like personal computers, complex computing systems that manage electricity grids, nuclear power plants, transportation systems or national and municipal water pipelines require software updates from time to time. However, unlike personal computers that serve a single user, the results of a disruption during this update can have a widespread impact - and a very high price.
The new project was named "Pinchette" - thanks to the ability it is expected to promote, to locate and eliminate in advance the smallest bugs in especially large networks. This, through full automation of complex tasks in the field of analysis and testing of software systems.
According to the accepted estimates, the total costs of verifying and testing new software are 40-70% of the cost of the system throughout its life cycle.
The research and development consortium that will be led by IBM's research laboratory in Haifa includes Israel's aerospace industry, the University of Oxford, USI University from Switzerland, UniMiB University from Italy, the VTT Technological Institute from Finland, which develops software for future power plants that will be based on the utilization of nuclear fusion energy, and the Swiss and German branches of the company ABB, which develops software for the management of power grids in large parts of Europe.
Dr. Hanna Zukler, a researcher at the IBM research laboratory in Haifa and coordinator of the Tweezer project, stated that "We know that upgrading an operating system - whether for maintenance, software upgrades or compliance with new legislative requirements - may take many days, before all applications return to full operation . The joint research will herald a new era in which system designers, developers and users will be able to prevent potential failures even before they actually occur."
The Tweezers project will introduce new capabilities in the field of engineering and systems management to the world of networked systems, which require extremely high levels of reliability. The project will develop the technology that enables infrastructure upgrades in a safe format, by ensuring the correct functioning of all the components and systems. As a result, it will be possible to perform updates in a more secure format, based on certificates issued to each system or application that meet the required standards - while shortening the development processes and introducing software upgrades to the market.
Tweezers will allow developers and software testers to make changes to applications and test them easily, diagnose errors and handle them the second they occur, using new engineering technologies that combine static and dynamic analysis. The project is expected to lead to theoretical innovations and give birth to applied tools that will make it possible to predict the activation of changes and updates on networked systems. Special emphasis will be given to ensuring the compatibility of different versions of the same software operating on the network, since upgrade processes are usually carried out in stages - and therefore processing nodes and different systems must continue to operate even after some of the related systems have been upgraded.
Despite the existence of design and programming verification technologies, which guarantee that new software will operate as planned, there is currently no technology adapted to handling system upgrades. An authentication solution for upgrading systems is especially required as the life cycle of products shortens, and their complexity increases. The main progress that the Tweezers project strives for will be based on the combination of testing technologies, imaging technologies (simulation), and formal verification methods that come from the world of mathematics: mathematical proof that the system will indeed behave as planned, even within a wide - and possibly infinite - range of operating conditions.
