Universal Configuration Format for Virtual, Hybrid and Hardware Testing of Avionic Platforms

Avionics module configuration will become more com-plex due to advancing technologies, including more autonomy and further digitalization. This leads to an increase of integrated systems, which are used to host the respective applications on avionic platforms. With emerging design methods using model-, software-, or hardware-in-the-Ioop testing, continuous information propagation is critical for their seamless integration. While state-of-the-art configuration approaches already implement automation to reduce human error and increase efficiency, their application is usually limited to a singular target environment. For example, a particular device type is often configured or represented in a proprietary format. However, platform configuration has to be transferable to include as many target environments (i.e., simulation, real hardware) as possible. This drastically reduces the amount of redundant configuration workload and improves development efficiency. Therefore, a robust and automated platform-level configuration approach is required. The Universal Configuration Format (UCoF) offers a new approach for the configuration of avionic platforms for multiple target environments. With UCoF, avionics platforms can be integrated on any virtual, hybrid, or real hardware test-benches. UCoF is an open, model-based format, standardizing the storage of data, resulting in a core database, that creates a single source of truth for all configuration information throughout the whole development process. Thereby, a holistic approach is achieved, enabling transparent workflows and easily traceable change management. In this paper, an ATA-21-like platform will be configured using UCoF, demonstrating how information is stored for multiple target environments in a single database, without any redundant data.

Subjects

Avionics | Configuration | MBSE

DDC Class

629.13: Aviation Engineering

Options

Universal Configuration Format for Virtual, Hybrid and Hardware Testing of Avionic Platforms