Integrated Guidance Systems LLC (IGS LLC), a joint venture between Honeywell and Rockwell Collins, has developed the next generation, Deeply Integrated (DI) guidance, navigation and control product which will meet the emerging demands of military applications. The guidance, navigation and control Flight Management Unit (FMU) is based on Selective Availability Anti-Spoof Module (SAASM) and Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS) sensor technology and ishoused in a small, light weight, low power package. In addition to meeting the demands of the military's gun-hardened guided projectile and missile applications, the FMU has applicability in soldier personal navigation systems and military/commercial attitude, heading and reference systems (AHRS). When coupled with Honeywell's second generation C++ based Embedded Computer Toolbox and Operating System (ECTOS™ IIc), the FMU can be utilized easily and effectively for rapid prototyping demonstration (including customer generated guidance and control software), as well as full production systems. Utilizing the latest processor technology, the FMU has been designed to accommodate the next generation INS/GPS Ultra Tightly Coupled (UTC) algorithms. The UTC algorithms, together with the embedded hardware anti-jam electronics, enables the FMU to perform in the otherwise potentially disabling environment of today's battlefield. The FMU has been tested to 20,000 G's (battery backed state), successfully demonstrating the hardware components survive and perform after exposure to the high G environment.This paper presents an overview of the FMU and ECTOS™ IIc software. The hardware architecture and technical specifications of the FMU will be presented, along with a more detailed look at its high G and anti-jam capability. Performance will be reviewed as well as the IGS LLC's approach to providing a deterministic IEEE 1394b bus protocol. Finally, the software architecture, capability, and customer usability / programmability features of ECTOS™ IIc will be described.
In the international standards for architecture descriptions in systems and software engineering (ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010), "concern" is a primary concept that often manifests itself in relation to the quality attributes or "ilities" that a system is expected to exhibitqualities such as reliability, security and modifiability. One of the main uses of an architecture description is to serve as a basis for analyzing how well the architecture achieves its quality attributes, and that requires architects to be as precise as possible about what they mean in claiming, for example, that an architecture supports "modifiability." This paper describes a table, generated by NASA's Software Architecture Review Board, which lists fourteen key quality attributes, identifies different important aspects of each quality attribute and considers each aspect in terms of requirements, rationale, evidence, and tactics to achieve the aspect. This quality attribute table is intended to serve as a guide to software architects, software developers, and software architecture reviewers in the domain of mission-critical real-time embedded systems, such as space mission flight software.
No two flight missions are alike, hence, development and on-orbit software costs are high. Software portability and adaptability across hardware platforms and operating systems has been minimal at best. Standard interfaces across applications and/or common applications are almost non-existent. To reduce flight software costs, these issues must be addressed. This presentation describes how the Flight Software Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center has architected a solution to these problems.
Recent commercial developments in multicore processors (e.g. Tilera, Clearspeed, HyperX) have provided an option for high performance embedded computing that rivals the performance attainable with FPGA-based reconfigurable computing architectures. Furthermore, these processors offer more straightforward and streamlined application development by allowing the use of conventional programming languages and software tools in lieu of hardware design languages such as VHDL and Verilog. With these advantages, multicore processors can significantly enhance the capabilities of future robotic space missions. This paper will discuss these benefits, along with onboard processing applications where multicore processing can offer advantages over existing or competing approaches. This paper will also discuss the key artchitecural features of current commercial multicore processors. In comparison to the current art, the features and advancements necessary for spaceflight multicore processors will be identified. These include power reduction, radiation hardening, inherent fault tolerance, and support for common spacecraft bus interfaces. Lastly, this paper will explore how multicore processors might evolve with advances in electronics technology and how avionics architectures might evolve once multicore processors are inserted into NASA robotic spacecraft. I. Introductionobotic spacecraft, regardless of mission, generally conform to a generic architecture, which can be divided into the spacecraft infrastructure and the spacecraft payload. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the spacecraft "bus" provides the basic infrastructure of the spacecraft and consists of a mechanical structure, a power generation and distribution subsystem, a propulsion and attitude control subsystem (including guidance/navigation sensors), a radio communication subsystem, and a command and data handling subsystem (including the flight control computer, memory storage, and data acquisition for a suite of "housekeeping" sensors). Attached to this bus infrastructure is the payload, consisting of the science and exploration instruments which are the spacecraft's raison d'etre.In this paper, we examine the spacecraft computing system, which, to date, on most spacecraft, is a relatively low performance, but extremely high reliability computer. Its task, for the most part, has been to execute carefully crafted sequences provided by a team of experts on the ground that is responsible for mapping out the spacecraft's minute-to-minute activities and uploading these sequences on a periodic basis via the radio communication system. This paradigm, however, is extremely costly, limiting in mission capabilities, and greatly reduces the potential science and exploration return on mission investment. In most cases, what can be done with the limited computing resources available in current spacecraft has been done, and we are reaching the limit of mission complexity and spacecraft capability achievable with standard spacecraft control computer technology.
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