Computerised controllers for safety critical medical applications.

Abstract

A novel design for a computer control system to be employed in safety critical applications, as found in medical environments, is presented. It features a low complexity, fault detecting hardware architecturally supporting a strictly cyclic operating mode, as known from programmable logic controllers, and a specification level, graphical programming technique based on the interconnection of application oriented standard software function modules. By design, there is no semantic gap between the programming and machine execution levels. Thus enabling the safety licensing of application software by an extremely simple but rigorous method, the software verification problem is satisfactorily solved for a large application area, where failures may cause hazards to, or even loss of, human safety and lives.