Flexible software pleases both commercial and military aerospace customers, but
is often expensive and puts projects in the red. The rigidity of off-the-shelf
software pleases neither market entirely but results in a black bottom line.
Meanwhile, aerospace companies have to compete well in both markets to stay profitable.
Sometimes, a paradox can only be solved with a new paradigm. At BFGoodrich
Aerospace Aircraft Integrated Systems, software technical leads Mark Chaffee and Hal Clark engineered both flexibility
and rigidity in software programming in Ada. The result is the Integrated Mechanical
Diagnostics Helicopter Usage and Maintenance System (IMD-HUMS).
"Data change, not software"
The two veteran programmers' paradigm is a mantra that they submitted
their design criteria to throughout the two-year project: "Data change,
not software." Simple, direct, and revolutionary. The "box," which
technically only refers to the main processor unit that flies on the
helicopter and measures no more than a foot [30 cm] in any direction,
won the engineers the BFGoodrich Engineering Innovation Award in 1998.
The Dual Usage HUMS collects data on and measures the wear and tear
that a flight causes a helicopter. It smooths the helicopter's
vibration level and the rotor system without dedicated flights, and
monitors flight parameters, such as air speed and engine torque, and the
helicopter's structural usage. It also performs mechanical diagnostics
from drive shafts to gear boxes. Designed to check normal flight use,
IMD-HUMS also registers anything out of the ordinary, such as a hard
landing.
IMD-HUMS acquires data from 150 input channels at a high sample rate.
It stores additional data if it detects an anomalous condition, and
displays a warning to the pilot on a three-inch [7.6 cm] cockpit
indicator. Up to 20 hours of flight data are stored in an on-board
PCMCIA flash memory card. After each flight, the data are transferred
to a ground station computer running Windows NT. IMD- HUMS then
generates a series of operations, maintenance, and engineering reports.
The networked-based system manages all flight maintenance and parts data
from the fleet's various locations.
Currently [Fall 1999] in flight test on a CH-53E Naval Helicopter,
IMD-HUMS will also be installed in H-60s. According to Chaffee, the
testing is "going very well" at Patuxent River Naval Station (PAX).
The 40K SLOC of Ada95 code, counting terminal semicolons, is a new
system. IMD-HUMS's predecessor was installed in the Agusta A109K2
helicopters used in Switzer-land's REGA air ambulances, and in several
Eurocopter models AS350/355s that are used by the Spanish traffic
police. The HUMS box was a limited version of the current functions
written in C++, and STC certified by the Federal Aviation
Administration.
Fluid Requirements
The Navy contracted for the new version for their Sikorsky SH60 and
CH53 fleet in 1997. The open architecture is also based on the
functional and performance requirements of Sikorsky's commercial S-76s
and S-92s. From the design stage onwards, the Dual Use HUMS software
had to accommodate requirements changes and yet be precise enough to
pass FAA standards for commercial flight certification.
Chaffee and Clark decided to program in Ada specifically because the
software had to pass FAA's rigorous standards, in which every line of
code, including in the runtime system, must be executed and tested. A
veteran of building runtime systems to FAA standards, Aonix agreed to
create ObjectAda Real-Time RAVEN™ and use BFGoodrich as the compiler's
kick-off customer.
Small Size, Fast Performance
Aonix's RAVEN is based on an emerging standard called the Ravenscar
Profile, which accommodates certification requirements for
safety-critical, real-time systems. The profile defines a special
tasking model that emphasizes small size, fast performance, and
deterministic behavior.
Aonix's expert on FAA certification traveled many times from
Cambridge, Mass., to iron out wrinkles with Chaffee and Clark in
Vergennes, Vt.. "Aonix was solid from the beginning," Chaffee said. "We
took advantage of Ada95 and used every possible function. If it's in
the Ravenscar, we exploited it."
Chaffee and Clark agree that language issues never stalled the project.
In fact, they had very few problems with Ada95 after the initial
startup. The wrinkles came from changing requirements and integrating
them into the design and hardware. However, the engineers found that
their object-oriented design provided them with both the flexibility and
solidity that they needed even when a new requirement threatened to
"stop the whole show."
"The OOD was robust," Clark said. "We added components and objectives
very easily. We still are, as requests for new features come back to
us."
HUMS runs on a Power PC, which, again, was a new processor for the two
engineers. So were the development and test tools they used. Today, they are using
Ada Cast™ for the FAA testing, which they estimate will require four months and
3.5 staff years to pass.
"Not as Painful as C++"
Tools and processor were not the only untested components to the
IMD-HUMS development. While Chaffee and Clark are experienced Ada83
programmers, neither had worked in Ada95. Clark, who has tested
soft-ware for commercial flight in his career, said that to develop
IMD-HUMS in Ada83 would have been "painful, but not as painful as C++."
New software development tools, new compiler, new processor, new
language, new markets to conquer. No wonder Chaffee and Clark were
forced to invent a new software development methodology, to coin a new
mantra, and to discover a new design paradigm.
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