stpa-step2-control-structure

A control structure diagram visualizes hierarchical controllers, control actions, and feedback paths, helping safety engineers reveal interactions often missed in traditional diagrams during STPA safety analysis.

A hierarchical control-feedback diagram maps how controllers issue control actions downward and receive feedback upward, capturing the dynamic command structure of a system for safety engineering tasks like STPA.

Yes, you need Graphviz to render the DOT syntax output, which generates clear hierarchical control structure diagrams showing controllers, control actions, and feedback paths for safety analysis.

Identify controllers, control actions, and feedback paths through guided structured questions that validate your system's control hierarchy before generating the Graphviz diagram and moving to STPA Step 3.

Yes, you can use this control structure approach for autonomous vehicle safety analysis to visualize how sensors, controllers, and actuators interact within the hierarchical control-feedback diagram.

Graphviz DOT generates static hierarchical diagrams, meaning it does not simulate dynamic runtime behavior or verify control loop timing, serving only as a visual modeling and validation checklist for STPA.