Seamless Transitions from Logical to Physical Avionics Architecture Models for Preliminary Aircraft Systems Design

Abstract

The transition of federated aviation electronics (avionics) systems to Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) concepts leads to a higher integration of functions, which reduces the amount of equipment and therefore system mass. However, these benefits are accompanied by a strong increase in system complexity and more interdependencies. Moreover, further digitalization and automation of aircraft functions lead to a higher impact of avionics in terms of equipment number and energy consumption. One challenge arises from the fact that the IMA platform design starts in parallel to the design of other aircraft on‐board systems, for which the platform shall provide resources like computing power. This leads to a high uncertainty during early design phases on the one hand and to a complex design process including many data and tool interfaces on the other hand. In order to meet these challenges, seamless model‐based design approaches are being broadly investigated. For this purpose, standardized and automated interfaces between different design steps, tools, and stakeholders are needed. In this work, a formalized avionics architecture design process is proposed to support a seamless model‐based tool chain from systems architecting to detailed system design. Methods to handle uncertainties, to provide standardized model interfaces, and to automate transitions between model abstraction levels are included. Overall, this reduces manual effort and the introduction of errors that would lead to high costs during system implementation.