Potential Aircraft Safety
Issues and the Qualification of Complex Electronic Hardware Tools
PI, Contract DTFACT-07-C-00010 FAA Technical Center, 03/15/2007 –
05/14/2009 (current)
The objective of this study is to provide the sponsor, the FAA, with
input on potential safety issues in the assessment and qualification of tools
used in developing complex electronic hardware (CEH) for the aircraft. The primary devices in this category include
equipment based on PLD (Programmable Logic Devices), FPGA (Field Programmable
Gate Arrays), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), and similar
circuits used as components of programmable electronic hardware. RTCA DO-254,
“Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware”, in its Section
11.4, “Tool Assessment and Qualification”, provides details on the processes
that must be followed in respective tools’ assessment. In particular, it provides certification
information on project conception, planning, design, implementation, testing,
and verification. According to these
guidelines, the study will seek to identify and address tool qualification
issues that designers of avionics systems face while using both hardware design
tools and hardware verification tools.
The study is conducted in two years, in several steps including: the
industry surveys, identification of primary certification, performance and
safety concerns, developing a plan for validating these concerns, surveying
tool vendors and hardware developers, conducting experiments with the selected
tools, evaluating the experimental results, addressing the qualification
concerns, and producing the final report.
The results of this study are expected to include the determination of
the major safety issues of tool qualification and recommendations for
addressing them in the qualification process. The expected outcome will be a
base for development of an FAA policy and guidance.
Assessment of Software Development
Tools for Safety-Critical, Real-Time Systems
PI, Contract
DTFA0301C00048, FAA Technical Center, 01/15/2002 – 09/15/2006 (completed)
The objective of the research was to identify the assessment criteria
that allow both developers and certifying authorities to evaluate specific
safety-critical, real-time software development tools from a system and
software safety perspective. The report
clarifies the landscape of software development tools with respect to the
current aviation system certification guidelines. The research effort proceeded
in two directions: (1) collecting data on tool qualification efforts to examine
potential future modifications to the existing guidelines; and (2) creating
software development tool evaluation taxonomy by identifying tool categories,
functionalities, concerns, factors, and evaluation methods.
The problem statement had four components: (1) industry view, (2)
qualification, (3) quality assessment, and (4) tool evaluation taxonomy. The
data collected from industry influenced the evaluation process and the
recommendations for development tool practices. Selected methods used to
evaluate tools were described. The report presents different categories of
tools identified in the course of the research. This categorization is limited
to the research scope as guided by DO-178B. Finally, the report defines the
structure and the organization of the tool evaluation taxonomy and includes
observations and recommendations for the certifying authority to constitute a
base for development of an FAA policy and guidance..
Structural Usage Monitoring and
Flight Regime Recognition Algorithm and Methodology Enhancement and Validation
Co-PI,
Contract DTFACT-05-C-00023 FAA Technical Center, 09/15/2005 - 09/30/2008 (completed)
This research contract addresses both hardware and software algorithms
required for recording and storage of data in a Health and Usage Monitoring
Systems (HUMS). It is anticipated that
these systems can be used for the extension of life for flight critical
structural components and thus possible reduction of the maintenance
requirements. Thus, both the hardware
and software must be addressed, from the standpoint of certification, as flight
critical components. Many of the
components of a HUMS system are currently being used in similar
situations. These components, however,
have not been previously implemented in flight critical application. The primary thrust of this investigation is
to develop a system that is certifiable as a flight critical system with the
minimum developmental costs. To
accomplish this, it (a) a proven Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology as
the hardware component was used, and, (b) algorithms for flight regime
identification using well-known Parameter Identification (PID) strategies in a
flight critical software environment were developed.
At the top level, from a chronological prospective, this project can be
broken up into three distinct year-long phases.
In year one, the team designed a HUMS system, based on analysis of the
existing hardware and applicable FRR/UM algorithms. In year two, the team produced and integrated
a HUMS system. In year three, the team tested
and validated the HUMS system. The
result was a mock-up full certification process for a HUMS system.
Systems & Electronics, Inc. (SEI) provided the hardware used in this
investigation. SEI has had a long
history of producing, analyzing and warehousing flight data. The current
production hardware has be used for this application after
reconfiguration and minor modifications.