Automatic deployment of an RPAS Mission Manager to an ARINC-653 compliant system

[EN] The development process of avionics system requiring a high level of safety is subjected to rigorous development and verification standards. In order to accelerate and facilitate this process, we present a testbed that uses a suite of methods and tools to comply with aerospace standards for certification. To illustrate the proposed methodology, we designed a Mission Management System for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) that was deployed on a particular run-time execution platform called XtratuM, an ARINC-653 compliant system developed in our research group. The paper discusses the system requirements, the software architecture, the key issues for porting designs to XtratuM, and how to automatize this process. Results show that the proposed testbed is a good platform for designing and qualifying avionics applications.This research has been financed by the Institute of Control Systems and Industrial Computing (Ai2), and by projects GVA AICO/2015/126 (Ayudas para Grupos de Investigacion Consolidables) and GVA ACIF/2016/197 (Ayudas para la contratacion de personal investigador en formacion de caracter predoctoral) of the Spanish Regional Government "Generalitat Valenciana".Usach Molina, H.; Vila Carbó, JA.; Crespo, A.; Yuste Pérez, P. (2018). Automatic deployment of an RPAS Mission Manager to an ARINC-653 compliant system. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems. 92(3-4):587-598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-017-0694-3S587598923-4Aeronautical Radio, Inc.: ARINC specification 653-1. Avionics Application Software Standard Interface (2003)Bonasso, R., Kerri, R., Jenks, K., Johnson, G.: Using the 3T architecture for tracking Shuttle RMS procedures. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Joint Symposia on Intelligence and Systems. IEEE, Rockville, MD, USA (1998) https://doi.org/10.1109/IJSIS.1998.685440fentISS: XtratuM Hypervisor Emulator (SKE) start guide. Tech. rep., Universidad Politècnica de València (2015)Fons, B.: Plataforma para diseño y ejecución de aplicaciones de aviónica. Universitat Politècnica de València, Master’s thesis (2013)International Civil Aviation Organization: Doc. 9613 AN/937: Performance-based Navigation (PBN) Manual, 4th edn. (2013)International Civil Aviation Organization: Doc. 10019, AN/507: Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), 1st edn. (2015)Koehl, D.: SESAR initiatives for RPAS integration. In: ICAO Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Symposium. Montreal, Canada (2015)Masmano, M., Ripoll, I., Crespo, A., Metge, J.: XtratuM: A hypervisor for safety critical embedded systems. In: Proceedings of the 11th Real-Time Linux Workshop. Dresden, Germany (2009)Masmano, M., Valiente, Y., Balbastre, P., Ripoll, I., Crespo, A., Metge, J.: LithOS: A ARINC-653 guest operating for XtratuM. In: Proceedings of the 12th Real-Time Linux Workshop. Nairobi, Kenia (2010)McCarley, J.S., Wickens, C.D.: Human factors implications of UAVs in the national airspace. Tech. Rep. AHFD-05-05/FAA-05-01, University of Illinois, Institute of Aviation, Aviation Human Factors Division (2005)North Atlantic Treaty Organization: STANAG 4703: Light Unmanned Aircraft Systems Airworthiness Requirements. NATO Standarization Agency (2014)Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA): DO-178C/ED-12C Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification. RTCA (2011)Ribeiro, L.R., Oliveira, N.M.R.: UAV autopilot controllers test platform using Matlab/Simulink and X-Plane. In: 40th ASEE/ IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. IEEE, Washington, DC, USA (2010). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2010.5673378Spitzer, C.R.: Digital Avionics Handbook: Elements, Software and Functions, 2nd edn. CRC Press (2006)The MathWorks Inc.: Simulink Coder Target Language Compiler (2012)Usach, H.: Integridad y tolerancia a fallos en sistemas de aviónica. Universitat Politècnica de València, Master’s thesis (2014)Usach, H., Fons, B., Vila, J., Crespo, A.: An autopilot testbed for IMA (Integrated Modular Avionics) architectures. In: Proceedings of the 19th IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace. Elsevier, Würzburg, Germany (2013). https://doi.org/10.3182/20130902-5-DE-2040.00076Usach, H., Vila, J., Crespo, A., Yuste, P.: A highly-automated RPAS Mission Manager for integrated airspace. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Application and Theory of Automation in Command and Control Systems, ATACCS’15. ACM, Toulouse, France (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2899361.289936

Study of flight management requirements during SST low visibility approach and landing operations. Volume 2 - Delineation of potential problems in supporting the performance of flight management tasks

Potential flight management problems during low visibility landing of supersonic transport

Aeronautical Engineering: A special bibliography with indexes, supplement 62

This bibliography lists 306 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in September 1975

A fault-tolerant multiprocessor architecture for aircraft, volume 1

A fault-tolerant multiprocessor architecture is reported. This architecture, together with a comprehensive information system architecture, has important potential for future aircraft applications. A preliminary definition and assessment of a suitable multiprocessor architecture for such applications is developed

Electronic/electric technology benefits study

The benefits and payoffs of advanced electronic/electric technologies were investigated for three types of aircraft. The technologies, evaluated in each of the three airplanes, included advanced flight controls, advanced secondary power, advanced avionic complements, new cockpit displays, and advanced air traffic control techniques. For the advanced flight controls, the near term considered relaxed static stability (RSS) with mechanical backup. The far term considered an advanced fly by wire system for a longitudinally unstable airplane. In the case of the secondary power systems, trades were made in two steps: in the near term, engine bleed was eliminated; in the far term bleed air, air plus hydraulics were eliminated. Using three commercial aircraft, in the 150, 350, and 700 passenger range, the technology value and pay-offs were quantified, with emphasis on the fiscal benefits. Weight reductions deriving from fuel saving and other system improvements were identified and the weight savings were cycled for their impact on TOGW (takeoff gross weight) and upon the performance of the airframes/engines. Maintenance, reliability, and logistic support were the other criteria

A strategic planning methodology for aircraft redesign

Due to a progressive market shift to a customer-driven environment, the influence of engineering changes on the product's market success is becoming more prominent. This situation affects many long lead-time product industries including aircraft manufacturing. Derivative development has been the key strategy for many aircraft manufacturers to survive the competitive market and this trend is expected to continue in the future. Within this environment of design adaptation and variation, the main market advantages are often gained by the fastest aircraft manufacturers to develop and produce their range of market offerings without any costly mistakes. This realization creates an emphasis on the efficiency of the redesign process, particularly on the handling of engineering changes. However, most activities involved in the redesign process are supported either inefficiently or not at all by the current design methods and tools, primarily because they have been mostly developed to improve original product development. In view of this, the main goal of this research is to propose an aircraft redesign methodology that will act as a decision-making aid for aircraft designers in the change implementation planning of derivative developments. The proposed method, known as Strategic Planning of Engineering Changes (SPEC), combines the key elements of the product redesign planning and change management processes. Its application is aimed at reducing the redesign risks of derivative aircraft development, improving the detection of possible change effects propagation, increasing the efficiency of the change implementation planning and also reducing the costs and the time delays due to the redesign process. To address these challenges, four research areas have been identified: baseline assessment, change propagation prediction, change impact analysis and change implementation planning. Based on the established requirements for the redesign planning process, several methods and tools that are identified within these research areas have been abstracted and adapted into the proposed SPEC method to meet the research goals. The proposed SPEC method is shown to be promising in improving the overall efficiency of the derivative aircraft planning process through two notional aircraft system redesign case studies that are presented in this study.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Prof. Dimitri Mavris; Committee Member: Dr. Elena Garcia; Committee Member: Dr. Neil Weston; Committee Member: Mathias Emeneth; Committee Member: Prof. Daniel P. Schrag

Service abstraction layer for UAV flexible application development

An Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is an uninhabited airplane, piloted by embed- ded avionics and supervised by an operator on ground. Unmanned Aerial Systems were designed to operate in dangerous situations, like military missions. With the avionics tech- nological evolution, Unmanned Aerial Systems also become a valid option for commercial applications, specially for dull and tedious surveillance applications. Cost considerations will also deviate some mission done today with conventional aircrafts to Unmanned Aerial Systems. In order to build economically viable UAS solutions, the same platform should be able to implement a variety of missions with little reconfiguration time and overhead. This paper describes a software abstraction layer for a Unmanned Aerial System distributed architecture. The proposed abstraction layer allows the easy and fast design of missions and solves in a cost-effective way the reusability of the system. The distributed architecture of the Unmanned Aerial System is service oriented. Func- tional units are implemented as independent services that interact each other using commu- nication primitives in a network centric approach. The paper presents a set of predefined services useful for reconfigurable civil missions and the directives for their communication.Postprint (published version

Modular Avionics for Seamless Reconfigurable UAS Missions

Abstract Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) architecture is a trend in current avionics that employs a partitioned environment in which different avionics functions share a unique computing environment. UAS avionics, especially in small UAS, are usually of less complexity than not the present on airliners, however, in real autonomous UAS, the onboard avionics should control not only the flight and navigation but also the mission and payload of the aircraft. This involves more complex software as it should implement “intelligent” or at least autonomous behavior. This need of both flexibility and complexity management while keeping low costs in the UAS avionics field requires new architectures to cope with. In this article, we describe a modular avionics architecture based on services. The avionics functionality is divided in distributed elements, the services, which are interconnected by a communication middleware. This article also proposes a configuration and deployment infrastructure and its related procedures that complete our vision of UAS avionics.Peer Reviewe

Robust simulation model approach to evaluate innovative asymmetry monitoring and control techniques in critical flap failure and aircraft controllability

Asymmetry limitation requirements between left and right wing flap surfaces are the most important in the design of the actuation of secondary flight control system, both in civil and military aircraft, due to the severity of the consequences. In case the position asymmetry would exceed a defined critical value it must be detected and limited by a dedicated monitoring equipment using a suitable and effective control algorithms. The development of the asymmetry monitoring feature plays a very important role in the design of innovative flap control systems, especially to improve the operating performances of secondary flight control systems installed on board of a modern aircraft. The current monitoring techniques are based on the differential position detection between left and right surfaces and, generally, their application slightly reduces the asymmetry. Nevertheless, in some cases these techniques may have an unreliable behavior in case of torque shaft fracture or major structural failures. When these particular mechanical failures appear special monitoring techniques can improve the control systems performances to overcome the typical shortcomings of the standard methods. In this paper a simulation model is proposed to evaluate, with an acceptable level of accuracy, the real behavior of a standard flap system using different monitoring and control algorithms. A reference control flap architecture, usually applied in military aircraft, is used to validate the model in the same operative conditions. By the proposed simulation model it is possible to evaluate the performances of the asymmetry detection and reduction algorithms with a comparison between different flap control system