Embedded systems have significantly increased in technical complexity towards open, interconnected systems. This has exacerbated the problem of ensuring dependability in the presence of human, environmental and technological risks. The rise of complex Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has led to many initiatives to promote reuse and automation of labor-intensive activities. Two large-scale projects are OPENCOSS and SafeCer, which dealt with assurance and certification of software-intensive critical systems using incremental and model-based approaches. OPENCOSS defined a Common Certification Language (CCL), unifying concepts from different industries to build a harmonized approach to reduce time and cost overheads, via facilitating the reuse of certification assets. SafeCer developed safety-oriented process lines, a component model, contract-based verification techniques, and process/product-based model-driven safety certification for compositional development and certification of CPSs. AMASS will create and consolidate a de-facto European-wide assurance and certification open tool platform, ecosystem and self-sustainable community spanning the largest CPS vertical markets. We will start by combining and evolving the OPENCOSS and SafeCer technological solutions towards end-user validated tools, and will enhance and perform further research into new areas not covered by those projects. The ultimate aim is to lower certification costs in face of rapidly changing product features and market needs. This will be achieved by establishing a novel holistic and reuse-oriented approach for architecture-driven assurance (fully compatible with standards e.g. AUTOSAR and IMA), multi-concern assurance (compliance demonstration, impact analyses, and compositional assurance of security and safety aspects), and for seamless interoperability between assurance/certification and engineering activities along with third-party activities (external assessments, supplier assurance).

SafeCOP (Safe Cooperating Cyber-Physical Systems using Wireless Communication) will establish a safety assurance approach, a platform architecture, and tools for cost-efficient and practical certification of cooperating cyber-physical systems (CO-CPS). SafeCOP targets safety-related CO-CPS characterized by use of wireless communication, multiple stakeholders, dynamic system definitions, and unpredictable operating environments. In this scenario, no single stakeholder has the overall responsibility over the resulted system-of-systems; safe cooperation relies on the wireless communication; and security and privacy are important concerns. Although such CO-CPS can successfully address several societal challenges, and can lead to new applications and new markets, their certification and development is not adequately addressed by existing practices. SafeCOP will provide an approach to the safety assurance of CO-CPS, enabling thus their certification and development. The project will define a platform architecture and will develop methods and tools, which will be used to produce safety assurance evidence needed to certify cooperative functions. SafeCOP will extend current wireless technologies to ensure safe and secure cooperation. SafeCOP will also contribute to new standards and regulations, by providing certification authorities and standardization committees with the scientifically validated solutions needed to craft effective standards extended to also address cooperation and system-of-systems issues. SafeCOP brings clear benefits in terms of cross-domain certification practice and implementations of cooperating systems in all addressed areas: automotive, maritime, healthcare and robotics. The advantages include lower certification costs, increased trustworthiness of wireless communication, better management of increasing complexity, reduced effort for verification and validation, lower total system costs, shorter time to market and increased market share.