Introducing the Formal Methods (FMs) Guidebook

The Formal Methods (FMs) Guidebook from the Shift2Rail project provides guidance on when, why, and how to use FMs for railway signaling, to facilitate understanding and to pave the way for wider use in the industry. In this webinar, we cover the main contents and recommendations in this new FMs Guidebook for the railway signaling industry, give examples and describe benefits that can be obtained.

The webinar introduce fundamental facts described in the guidebook:

• The different roles of FMs in the life cycle, based on four high-level life cycles phases (mapping to well-known phases in applicable CENELEC standards)
• The importance of a clearly defined purpose for FMs use in a project (it helps to understand the important factors, and to make informed decisions)
• The five example purposes for FMs use described (with recommendations and task checklists for each purpose)
• The generic, six-step process for FMs application (independent of purpose, life cycle phase, notations, and tools)

During the webinar, we describe examples of the generic FMs application process and guidebook recommendations. We also describe the recommended process to create high-quality tender requirements based on the use of FMs and a reference design, applied for interlocking logic.