Evidential Tool Bus

The ETB2 project aims to develop techniques for substantiating safety claims for software based on distributed arguments and supporting evidence.

To this end, the project develops formal and semi-formal languages for specifying safety argument patterns commonly found in certification standards, guidelines, and established industrial practices. These languages are designed to be sufficiently expressive to describe the resulting safety claims and argument structures in a precise and rigorous manner.

In parallel, ETB2 develops algorithms for the decentralized execution of safety arguments, enabling multiple entities to collaborate in establishing a given claim. A key challenge is the secure exchange of claims and supporting evidence among the participating entities.

Furthermore, the project places a particular focus on emerging applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). To support safety assurance for systems containing learning-enabled components, ETB2 develops dedicated safety argument patterns and appropriate evidence artifacts.

ETB2 is built on the following pillars:

Formal Arguments

ETB2 formalizes the policies used in safety arguments as logical specifications in Cyberlogic, a first-order attestation logic for evidence-carrying transactions. These policies are implemented as distributed logic programs. The resulting specifications combine logical inference with evidence generated through verification workflows. As a result, safety arguments used in safety cases are assigned a precise semantics, enabling incremental, continuous, and automated certification assessment.

Workflows as Services

Automated software verification workflows specified in Cyberlogic enable the automated generation of evidence through the execution of existing state-of-the-art software verification tools. These services are deployed as decentralized, container-based components, supporting scalability in operational environments.

Decentralized Safety Assurance

ETB2 enables the decentralized collaboration of multiple tools and entities for the generation, management, and assessment of safety claims. Through the secure exchange of claims and evidence, as well as the continuous execution of verification workflows, the framework supports end-to-end and traceable safety assurance throughout the entire system lifecycle.

Internal and through different projects