Automatic generation of fault trees: A survey on methods and approaches

The fault tree analysis is a method for reliability analysis and safety assessment of technical equipment and systems. The method was developed in 1961 and applied continuously since then. Various standards recommend or require the fault tree analysis for system safety verification. Initially, the fault tree analysis was conducted by hand. Due to the growing system complexity, analyses were carried out with computer assistance. With the evolution of model-based system development, a possibility has been created to carry out fault tree analysis indirectly by the description of systems and their behavior. In recent years, a lot of different approaches for automatic fault tree generation were developed. The methods found, use system description languages such as SYSML or tools like Simulink. Through a systematic literature review, existing methods have been identified and analyzed. In this review those methods will be discussed and steps for further devel-opment will be proposed.