=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2308/aviose2019paper04
|storemode=property
|title=Tool Chain for Avionics Design, Development, Integration and Test
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2308/aviose2019paper04.pdf
|volume=Vol-2308
|authors=Martin Halle,Frank Thielecke
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/se/HalleT19
}}
==Tool Chain for Avionics Design, Development, Integration and Test==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2308/aviose2019paper04.pdf
Tool Chain for Avionics Design, Development,
Integration and Test
Martin Halle Frank Thielecke
Institute of Aircraft Systems Engineering (FST) Institute of Aircraft Systems Engineering (FST)
Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)
Hamburg, Germany Hamburg, Germany
Martin.Halle@tuhh.de Frank.Thielecke@tuhh.de
Index Terms—avionics, tool chain, IMA, design, development,
integration, test
Abstract—The design, development, integration and test of
avionics systems is a complex task. Several national and European
projects aimed at improving the methods and tools for new
IMA platforms. Since about 12 years, the Institute of Aircraft
Systems Engineering of the Hamburg University of Technology
continuously contributed to such projects. This paper gives an
overview about the tool chain that has been developed so far
and addresses a new extension in the field of avionics tests and
its automation that will be developed in on-going and future
projects.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Avionics are based on a generic, modular platform (Inte-
grated Modular Avionics, IMA [1]) and serve system appli-
cations with the computing and I/O resource needs. Over the
years and different aircraft programmes (i.e. B777, B787 or Fig. 1. Avionics double-V-process
A380, A350), the avionics system has been further developed
towards a distributed platform with different types of com-
puting modules, different types of I/O and more and more a seamless tool-chain to demonstrate possible methods and
applications running on IMA. automise process steps as much as possible. New in the tool-
In the future, it is likely that IMA will expand into other chain is deriving re-usable and mostly generic tests procedures
areas like cabin and flight control, but also new capabilities for different test-platforms.
like multi-/many-core processors and I/O technologies like While the FST has a strong background in system testing
wireless or optical communication or combined I/O concepts and virtual integration [2] [3] [4] [5] [6], partially including
like data-over-power will be introduced. Such technologies IMA [7], so far, IMA has been either provided as-is or was not
will be the enabler for a modern avionics platform and will considered at all. Therefore, the influence of the IMA platform
increase the freedom for the platform- and system-designers. on the system function and vice versa in preliminary system
However, the burden of handling the complex overall design design was hard to investigate. Because of that, the seamless
space will increase, too. Manual design methods will likely tool-chain is extended to allow IMA platform simulations
become too error-prone or even impossible but at least non- hosting system applications on virtual IMA modules to allow
optimal. studying and test the functional behaviour of the system
Ongoing research of the Institute of Aircraft Systems En- functions with respect to new IMA approaches.
gineering (FST) of the Hamburg University of Technology The paper is organised as follows: First, the different tools
(TUHH) adresses an approach to an avionics-centred double-V of the seamless-tool chain that already exist and how they
process as shown in figure 1. fit into the double-V are explained. Then, the approach for
The double-V stems from the idea to have a model-based simulation based avionics test will be explained. The paper
seamless tool-chain that supports the development process not ends with a summary and outlook.
only by the tools but also by enabling early validation and
test. Using simulations and models that are derived from data II. AVIONICS A RCHITECT
and information based on the current level of detail available, When starting to design a new avionics platform or updating
a digital twin of the avionics platform allows its validation an existing one a lot of decisions have to me made. What
at any time in the development process. The FST develops systems/system applications will utilise IMA; what resources
AvioSE 2019: 1st Workshop on Avionics Systems and Software Engineering @ SE19, Stuttgart, Germany 79
require these applications; what I/O needs to be supported by supplier and do not allow for an optimisation at aircraft level.
the platform as well as where and what installation locations
III. AVIONICS C ONFIGURATOR
can be used. To to derive a valid architecture, additionally
system- and certification constraints have to be take into After the design of the avionics platform is done the
account. function and configuration development starts. Besides the
For such purposes, a model-based methodology has been actual system software applications the configuration for IMA
developed [8] that allows to formulate and capture these re- modules plays an important role. It consists of thousands
quirements is a formal way that allows to be further processed of parameters that define the application (partitions) as well
and to derive an optimised IMA platform. The requirements as physical and logical I/O parameters. For specific IMA
are captured in a rather generic way and can either be input modules several other parameters like for combinatorial logic
manually or imported as tables which contain: are included, too. Configuration tools are provided by the
• Software tasks and their attributes like resource require-
respective module suppliers for their dedicated IMA modules
ment (I/O, memory, redundancy/segregation constraints, whereas the actual configuration is managed by the OEM
. . . ); by means of a database and configuration documents. These
• Signals to be exchanged between tasks and attributes like
configuration documents are often hand-crafted using tools
periodicity or bandwidth like Excel in comma-separated-values (CSV) format.
• Physical system peripherals like sensors or actuators and
Due to the fact that this is often error-prone, a new model-
their location as well as attributes like weight, dimen- based concept for creating and managing configuration data at
sions, . . . ; aircraft level has been developed by FST [12] [13]. For such
• Devices that can host tasks and provide resources or are
purposes, a model-based configuration management concept
required for I/O like switches. Additional attributes can and software-framework namely Avionics Configurator was
be captured like weight, cost, power supply and others; developed and is shown in figure 3.
• The anatomy of the aircraft or vehicle to describe in-
stallation locations for devices or peripherals and cable
routes including attributes like capacity, volume, available
resources and alike.
The information is structured and linked based on a meta-
model in an Eclipse-based [9] application. The software-
framework that implements the methodology and provides a
graphical frontend to the user is called Avionics Architect and
shown in figure 2.
Fig. 3. Avionics Configurator
It allows to capture all configuration parameters in a supplier
independent format in one tool. It replaces the need for
table-based editing with duplicated information by using a
linked meta-model and guided input. Graphical visualisations
and model-based verification of the users input improve the
consistency of the configuration data early in the development
process. It is not a replacement for the qualified tool-chain
Fig. 2. Avionics Architect of the module supplier though, but can export the input files
needed for these tools e.g. for a qualifiable validation. In the
In the V-model its use is in the left-hand side when the V-model its use is currently in the implementation phase.
requirements are captured. This includes the requirements for Because Avionics Architect and Avionics Configurator share
the IMA platform to e.g. derive the specification for IMA the same philosophy of meta-modelling and also the same
modules but also the requirements of the system applications modelling language (Ecore from the Eclipse Modelling Frame-
to achieve a common understanding and integration database work, [9]) in [14] a methodology has been presented that al-
between the integrator and the system departments. lows to create configuration stubs directly from the architecture
Similar tools from platform suppliers have been developed data using a formal model-to-model transformation. Thus, all
[10] [11] but they are usually limited to the modules of that configuration-relevant information that was already captured
AvioSE 2019: 1st Workshop on Avionics Systems and Software Engineering @ SE19, Stuttgart, Germany 80
during the architecture phase will be derived automatically V. AVIONICS T EST
following the philosophy of a seamless tool-chain [15].
A new project continues the work and aims at model-based
or hybrid virtual testing in a more systematic and automated
IV. AVIONICS S IMULATION manner. As already mentioned, using the architectural and
configuration data, simulations can be derived that are used
Knowing the architecture of an IMA platform, the functions, for nominal and failure case testing. As explained in [18],
the I/O types and signals between function blocks and the functional tests can be executed on these models. So far, the
configuration of system applications, virtual integration and tests were manually derived and executed. The overall goal of
functional validation becomes possible. such tests is to ensure functionality of system applications
When it comes to functional validation of system appli- on the designed platform in early design and development
cations, often the algorithms behind these applications are stages. Thus, design limitations of the platform can be found.
developed in Matlab/Simulink or similar. The timing behaviour Consequently, such functional tests should be re-usable as soon
of the IMA platform and the I/O interfaces need to be consid- as hardware and/or equipment becomes available.
ered as good as possible for functional validation. To address To do so, an at least semi-automatic derivation of test
this issue, a simulation-framework namely Avionics Simulation cases and a test engine (Avionics Test) that can conduct and
has been developed at FST that consists of Matlab/Simulink- document these tests is desired. Although system requirements
based models to emulate the behaviour of IMA platforms and can be captured in Avionics Architect, this type of information
communication interfaces with respect to their timing, nominal is not yet consequently used for test automation although it is
and faulty behaviour [16]. It is shown in figure 4. already available in a structured, model-based and machine-
readable fashion. Alternatively, requirements databases like
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Fig. 4. Avionics Simulation
Assume an aircraft door system with 5 proxy sensors and
The simulation-framework consists of models for IMA avionics system functions hosted on an IMA modules to read
modules, schedulers, health management and I/O blocks. The their states and to visualise a consolidated state in the cockpit.
latter for IMA module internal functions (like ARINC 653 For a test case of the function that validates a ”cabin door
ports, buffers or blackboards [17]) but also external I/O like closed and locked” scenario, the following data is obtained
AFDX, CAN or analogue/discrete busses. For a seamless tool- from the respective sources:
chain, a model generator takes the architectural information • From a requirements database the functional requirements
from the Avionics Architect and the configuration details from needed for the test case are derived. That is, what and how
Avionics Configurator to generate an overall simulation model many proxy sensors must be in what state to confirm
stub that consists of the allocated IMA modules, partitions for the door is closed. Additionally meta-information like
the system applications and the communication between the test case ID and other information for traceability are
IMA modules (AFDX network) including the logical signals. obtained.
Technically this is done using the automation interface of Mat- • From the architecture model, the function and I/O allo-
lab/Simulink. Embedding the developed system functions into cation including the signal path physical wiring are ob-
this model is demonstrated in [18]. It allows for simulation- tained. This also includes the instances of IMA modules
based, virtual early validation studies of system applications hosting the respective functions or sub-functions.
under consideration of the IMA platform at aircraft level. In • From the configuration model, attributes like periods
the V-model its use is in right-hand side and can already start, and detailed signal attributes like sampling times, type
when hardware is not yet available. an size of data are obtained. This also includes the
AvioSE 2019: 1st Workshop on Avionics Systems and Software Engineering @ SE19, Stuttgart, Germany 81
concrete signal names and protocol encapsulation (i.e. hereby. The scientific question in this stage is how far does
functional data set structures with signal positions for this concept work and what type of tests can be accomplished
AFDX messages). to an useful extend. Also, the institute is seeking for a
• From the architecture and configuration model, the model standardisation of system tests including avionics. Some of
of the IMA platform is derived and instrumented with the remaining issues are how to formalise data formats and
system applications for simulations as explained earlier. data management. Other questions are how to derive test
To use the simulation model for testing, interfaces for relevant parameters that are often not expressed in machine
configuring the simulation itself, different block parameters readable format like timing behaviour constraints. For test
like buffer sizes or signal names and methods to inject automation, besides Matlab/Simulink also existing HITL test-
test-procedures and observers are required and need to be systems available at FST are investigated.
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