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.