{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"modular_decomposition__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_MAX","candidate_id":"modular_decomposition__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_MAX","decision":"PROPOSAL","abstention_reason":null,"proposal":{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp12_substrate_denial72_20260805","cell_id":"modular_decomposition__computer_science","arm":"CONSTRAINED_MAX","candidate_id":"modular_decomposition__computer_science__CONSTRAINED_MAX","proposal_index":1,"version":0,"title":"Passive responsibility-cassette harness for localizing embedded-controller resets","problem":"An embedded-controller integration bench intermittently resets when a motor actuator switches during sensor sampling. Controller power, sensor inputs, actuator lines, communication conductors, returns, and shields occupy one inaccessible loom. A supply sag, induced sensor transient, bus disturbance, shared-return shift, and firmware defect can therefore produce the same top-level symptom, while probing or replacing the loom disturbs several candidate paths at once.","actors":["Embedded-software developer","Electronics test engineer","Laboratory electrical-safety owner","Embedded controller under test","Bench power source, sensors, actuator, and communication peripherals"],"observable_state":"In the original configuration, the reset coincides with changes on several controller-visible channels, but the bundled physical paths cannot be opened, measured, or substituted independently. In the proposed fixture, each cassette has a visible pass-through state and direct boundary test points; raw voltage, current, continuity, or waveform state can be observed with a standalone instrument, and the reset can be observed while one declared electrical domain is physically opened or replaced without reconnecting the others.","consequence":"The physical origin of the reset remains confounded with firmware behavior. Investigators may alter code, replace the entire rig, or repeatedly disturb the loom without determining which interface carried the initiating disturbance, reducing diagnostic repeatability and risking misdirected changes.","affected_objective":"Causal localization and local repairability of hardware-software interface faults while preserving representative end-to-end electrical behavior.","intervention":"Replace only the diagnostic bench loom with a removable passive harness decomposed into keyed cassettes for supply-and-return, sensor-and-return, actuator-and-return, and communication-and-shield responsibilities, plus an explicit shared-reference integration plate. Every cassette contains its complete declared current path, a removable pass-through bridge, direct electrical test jacks, and, where electrically appropriate, passive loopback, termination, or known-load plugs. Pinout, voltage, current, impedance, shielding, and return topology are embodied in the wiring and keyed connectors. With every bridge installed, the integration plate recombines the cassettes into the original circuit topology within predeclared electrical tolerances. No firmware modification, automated classifier, or software control loop is part of the intervention.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Entangled whole","domain_realization":"The original bench loom combines power, sensing, actuation, communication, shields, and returns so manipulating one suspected path disturbs unrelated paths."},{"archetype_element":"Responsibility partitioning","domain_realization":"Complete electrical paths are grouped by the distinct functions and fault hypotheses of supplying power, receiving sensor signals, driving an actuator, carrying communications, and establishing shared reference."},{"archetype_element":"Module boundary","domain_realization":"A keyed, independently removable cassette physically bounds each group; labels alone do not constitute the boundary."},{"archetype_element":"Interface contract","domain_realization":"Connector keying and fixed conductors embody each cassette's pin assignment, polarity, current limit, impedance envelope, shield termination, and return connection."},{"archetype_element":"Encapsulation","domain_realization":"Internal splices, terminations, and channel routing remain within one cassette, while only declared conductors and test nodes cross its connectors."},{"archetype_element":"Integration policy","domain_realization":"The passive integration plate makes shared grounds and shields explicit and restores the complete circuit when all pass-through bridges are installed; no-fault electrical equivalence is checked before diagnosis."},{"archetype_element":"Module granularity","domain_realization":"A cassette corresponds to a fault domain that can be independently opened or substituted; domains are merged if they cannot be separated without unrepresentative shared impedance."},{"archetype_element":"System-level coherence","domain_realization":"The fixture is acceptable only if the assembled all-through state preserves the controller-peripheral netlist and relevant electrical behavior within predeclared tolerances."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"product_subsystem_decomposition","role":"Partitions one entangled physical interface into coherent electrical-responsibility subsystems.","counterfactual_removal":"If the loom remains one subsystem, every opening, replacement, or reconnection continues to disturb several fault hypotheses, so local causal discrimination is lost."},{"mechanism_slug":"mechanical_subassemblies","role":"Makes each responsibility an independently manipulable and replaceable keyed cassette.","counterfactual_removal":"If the groupings exist only on a diagram or label, they cannot be physically isolated or substituted and the essential local-change effect disappears."},{"mechanism_slug":"bounded_physical_interface","role":"Limits each boundary to declared conductors and electrical properties while allowing reliable recomposition.","counterfactual_removal":"Without constrained interfaces, cassettes cannot be reassembled reproducibly, and any symptom change could be an uncontrolled rewiring artifact."},{"mechanism_slug":"direct_boundary_instrumentation","role":"Exposes raw electrical state and provides a removable bridge exactly where each responsibility crosses its boundary.","counterfactual_removal":"Without boundary access, the cassettes remain replaceable but cannot support path-specific opening or direct measurement, materially removing the proposed diagnostic effect."},{"mechanism_slug":"passive_reintegration_plate","role":"Recombines the modules and represents shared reference, ground, and shield coupling as an explicit integration element.","counterfactual_removal":"Without physical reintegration, locally valid cassettes need not reproduce the whole bench circuit, so decomposition would become fragmentation."}],"causal_chain":["The monolithic loom makes several physical fault paths share inaccessible junctions and common handling.","Responsibility-aligned cassettes turn each complete electrical path, including its return or shield relation, into an independently manipulable physical unit.","Keyed interfaces constrain what can cross each boundary, while the all-through integration plate restores the intended whole circuit.","Opening or substituting one pass-through bridge changes only the conductors declared at that boundary while the other cassettes remain connected and mechanically undisturbed.","If the initiating disturbance originates in or traverses that cassette, its direct electrical state or the reset response should change; if it does not, the disturbance should persist subject to cross-domain coupling.","Repeating this physical discrimination across the bounded cassettes narrows the implicated interface set without rebuilding the complete loom.","A cassette can then be inspected or replaced locally; if no cassette-dependent response appears, the physical-interface hypothesis loses support rather than being inferred from software telemetry."],"baseline":"The comparator is the intact monolithic loom evaluated through software logs, whole-harness or whole-peripheral substitution, and ad hoc back-probing of whatever conductors are accessible. This baseline preserves the original rig but does not provide independently openable responsibility boundaries.","nearest_rivals":["A dense fixed breakout board exposes many electrical nodes with less mechanical restructuring, but it does not necessarily create independently replaceable responsibility modules or keep unrelated connections undisturbed.","Differential probes and current clamps on the original loom can capture raw signals noninvasively where geometry permits, but each new hypothesis may require renewed access and does not physically isolate a complete path.","Whole-harness or whole-peripheral A/B substitution can show that a physical assembly matters, but its unit of replacement is coarser than the declared fault domains.","Hardware-in-the-loop stimulation and expanded firmware tracing can correlate events and reproduce inputs, but their operative discrimination depends on computation and may not expose analog return, connector, or electromagnetic disturbances.","Galvanic isolators, fuses, and electrical bulkheads can contain propagation, but their primary objective is protection rather than decomposing the diagnostic search space while preserving the original through-path."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"Conditional on demonstrating no-fault electrical equivalence, responsibility-aligned physical cassettes should allow an injected physical disturbance to be assigned to a smaller declared interface set while disturbing fewer unrelated connections than ad hoc probing or whole-harness replacement. The claim does not extend to detecting firmware defects, preventing resets, or outperforming a fixed breakout that already provides equivalent physical isolation. If boundary test points alone perform identically, the added modular decomposition has no supported advantage.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The laboratory bench owner and qualified electronics engineer jointly authorize fixture installation; the electrical-safety owner may halt the work independently.","authorized_first_step":"Construct and test one current-limited, extra-low-voltage surrogate fixture while retaining the original loom intact for comparison and rollback.","excluded_actions":["No installation in production, fielded, clinical, transportation, or other safety-critical equipment","No work on mains, high-voltage, high-current, or stored-energy circuits","No energized connector rewiring or exposed conductive adjustments","No bypass of protective earth, interlocks, fuses, current limits, or emergency stops","No use of passive substitute loads outside their verified thermal and electrical ratings","No use of fixture results alone to authorize a safety-critical software or hardware release"],"halt_rollback":"Immediately de-energize and stop if a connector heats, insulation is damaged, unexpected current flows, protective equipment operates, or the all-through fixture exceeds any predeclared voltage-drop, impedance, timing, noise, or functional-equivalence tolerance. Remove the fixture and reinstall the retained original loom before further diagnosis."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The dominant coupling may cross the proposed cuts through chassis ground, electromagnetic fields, mechanical motion, or shared source impedance, making the responsibility boundaries false. Added connectors and changed geometry may also suppress the original reset or create a new one, so apparent localization could be a fixture artifact.","problem_falsifier":"The inferred entanglement problem is falsified if repeat trials on the intact loom show that one already accessible raw measurement or existing trace distinguishes the candidate causes reproducibly without dismantling or disturbing unrelated connections.","intervention_falsifier":"Reject the intervention if its all-through state fails electrical-equivalence limits, if benign fault injections cannot be assigned to their physical cassette more reliably than under the baseline, if manipulating one cassette measurably perturbs undeclared domains, or if equivalent localization is obtained from fixed test points without modular substitution.","risks":["Added contact resistance, capacitance, and inductance may alter power integrity, signal timing, or electromagnetic coupling.","Incorrect return or shield partitioning may create a ground loop or conceal a shared-impedance path.","A connector-keying or pin-map error could short supplies or damage the controller and peripherals.","Exposed test points increase electrostatic-discharge and accidental-short risk.","Passive loads or loopbacks may not represent nonlinear or time-varying peripherals.","Investigators may falsely exclude cross-module causes after observing a local response.","Additional connectors may become intermittent faults and make the diagnostic fixture the source of the symptom."]},"next_evidence_step":"On one current-limited extra-low-voltage surrogate controller, fabricate the four cassettes and shared-reference plate with cable lengths and routing matched to the retained loom. First compare continuity, DC drop, idle and switched supply waveforms, bus edge shape, and end-to-end function in the all-through state against predeclared tolerances. Only if those checks pass, introduce eight reversible benign physical perturbations distributed across the four domains, with their locations concealed from the observer, and compare the modular fixture with the original loom on correct implicated-domain identification, number of unrelated connections disturbed, and occurrence of fixture-created artifacts. Stop after those eight trials or at the first safety or equivalence failure; do not advance to a live product rig.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Not assessed against prior proposals because runtime isolation forbids access to them. Relative only to the supplied archetype record, this candidate realizes modular decomposition through passive electrical and mechanical structure rather than software architecture, organizational boundaries, or governance.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":["Construct one concrete computer-science-domain candidate under the binding physical-substrate constraint.","Preserve responsibility partitioning, explicit boundaries, bounded interfaces, encapsulation, and physical reintegration.","Specify serious rivals, contrastive limits, authority, safeguards, falsifiers, risks, and a bounded evidence step.","Make counterfactual independence from software, analytics, reporting, incentives, and procedural enforcement explicit."],"conceptual_changes":["Translated the entangled whole from program code to the physical hardware-software integration interface.","Made shared grounds, returns, and shields an explicit integration module rather than hiding them across nominal boundaries.","Defined diagnostic tractability, rather than failure containment, as the primary objective."],"operational_changes":["Specified passive keyed cassettes, removable bridges, direct test points, substitute plugs, and an all-through integration plate.","Restricted the initial implementation to a current-limited extra-low-voltage surrogate with an intact rollback harness.","Added electrical-equivalence gates before any localization trial."],"evidence_changes":["No external or prior-art evidence was consulted.","Converted expected benefits into a bounded comparative injection test with explicit rejection conditions."],"claim_changes":["Made no novelty, prevalence, demand, or effect-size claim.","Limited the contrastive claim to physical fault-domain localization after electrical equivalence is demonstrated.","Explicitly conceded that fixed test points defeat the modularity claim if they provide equivalent isolation."]},"substrate_contract":{"primary_allowed_process":"PHYSICAL_MATERIAL","counterfactual_independence":"Remove all added software, algorithms, databases, dashboards, reporting systems, incentives, authorization rules, and procedural enforcement: the rewired harness still groups complete current paths into separate material cassettes, keyed connectors still constrain mating, removable bridges still open one declared circuit boundary, and the passive integration plate still recombines the circuit. A simple continuity lamp, analog meter, or direct oscilloscope display can expose the resulting raw electrical state; computation may record observations but does not create the isolation or substitution effect. Existing controller firmware is the object under test, not an operative component of the intervention.","forbidden_channel_audit":"The proposal contains no model, recommender, information-routing system, database, software controller, or analytic classifier. It does not require a policy, incentive, permission scheme, training program, review workflow, or accountability process to produce its physical partitioning. Safety authorization only bounds exposure and is not causal. Optional logging may document trials but can be removed without changing any current path. The test points expose raw electrical quantities rather than sending sensor data to downstream analytics, and the interface contract is materially embodied in conductor routing, connector keying, and passive components rather than enforced by software or paperwork."}}}