Automatic translation of digraph to fault-tree models

Abstract

The author presents a technique for converting digraph models, including those models containing cycles, to a fault-tree format. A computer program which automatically performs this translation using an object-oriented representation of the models has been developed. The fault-trees resulting from translations can be used for fault-tree analysis and diagnosis. Programs to calculate fault-tree and digraph cut sets and perform diagnosis with fault-tree models have also been developed. The digraph to fault-tree translation system has been successfully tested on several digraphs of varying size and complexity. Details of some representative translation problems are presented. Most of the computation performed by the program is dedicated to finding minimal cut sets for digraph nodes in order to break cycles in the digraph. Fault-trees produced by the translator have been successfully used with NASA's Fault-Tree Diagnosis System (FTDS) to produce automated diagnostic systems.