uC arrested for GBH

[Patchouli]

Hi.

How do I go about learning programming skills for safety regarding micros?
Not so much life-or-death applications but certainly where injury is possible.

I assume much of it is at the hardware level and making sure all failure conditions
are accounted for. I'm more concerned with code that watches itself, detects and
clears error conditions, reboots itself if locked (by definition impossible; it's locked!)

I mean the servo control code for my hard drive's head array is extremely reliable,
however no one gets hurt if it freaks out and start scrubbing the platters.

You always see the disclaimer: Not for use in life-saving devices. So where do you
learn to code (and test) uCs for high reliability applications?

Thanks.

 

[Exo]

You should look for a copy of the safety regulations for industry. In industry they use PLC's (not quite a µC, but the concept is the same). All safety issues are handled. Here in belgium it's called AREI. But I don't know how it's called in other countries.

Some things are pretty obvious. Like adding hardware safety's that are not handled by the µC, but connected directly. A emergency stop for example always cuts main power directly, it does not ask the µC to stop.