This effort will develop a rapid application development and virtual prototyping tool that automatically generates reusable object oriented source code for use in safety critical avionics display systems. Object oriented development will reduce development costs, program schedules and risk for new rotorcraft displays and will increase safety through a reduction in software defects. A user friendly development environment will allow a wide range of design/development professionals to participate in creating these systems. This technology will dramatically reduce development costs for related systems by promoting content reuse throughout the lifecycle of an avionics or embedded display program. Training simulations for operational and maintenance personnel, both free standing and CBT applications, as well as interactive manuals will benefit from direct reuse of design efforts utilizing industry standards MISRA C, DO-178B, and OpenGL. This tool will produce C/C++ - OpenGL graphics source code, allowing further cost reductions by leveraging low cost COTS graphics chipsets common in desktop and gaming systems. Interfaces within the tool will promote traceability using automated requirements tracking and certification systems, which will dramatically reduce the development and certification costs incurred by current processes. This effort will leverage successfully commercialized technology developed during a previous SBIR effort.The benefits to the Army from this SBIR will prove to be significant in the years to follow. The benefits will come from the improved communication, design and reuse of the engineering effort between the various professionals involved in the lifecycle of an embedded system graphics development program (e.g. Rotorcraft Displays). Among these benefits is a dramatic reduction in the continuous redevelopment that many avionics programs suffer as each design team (e.g Human Factors and Subject Mater Experts, System Architects, Embedded Software Developers, Instructional Content Developers) re-implements representations of the same systems in different development environments. The current industry environment often sees three or more redevelopments of essentially the same display systems as a program progresses from concept to deliverable. By developing and extending the GL Studio reusable object framework with an embedded run time library, the same design will be able to be used from initial prototype to the flight ready product. The GL Studio tool set, which DiSTI developed as part of a previous SBIR, was designed with just such a diverse user group in mind. GL Studio is already being used by several human factors groups in the design of Rotorcraft Displays, including PM Utility Helicopter in the APEX Lab at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. By leveraging this prior effort, DiSTI will be able to focus on the integration of these tools into the engineering environment used by the avionics industry, thus making what was a series of disjoint `stove-piped' efforts into a more collaborative environment. This process starts with conceptual designers and human factors professionals and takes their efforts directly to the embedded software professionals and beyond to the post deployment support of simulation and training applications. In each of these settings, the same design content will be utilized with a variety of targeted code generation capabilities that support the appropriate levels of the DO-178B process using industry standards for graphics software development. The cost savings realized from improved inter-disciplinary communications alone makes the price of this SBIR worthwhile. Within this SBIR, DiSTI will perform a two part effort which will dramatically reduce costs in the development of avionics displays. The first part will be a closer and more automated integration of the development of these displays with the processes outlined in DO-178B. This will reduce the administrative expenses related to requirements tracking and certification of these display systems. The second part will focus on the development of a targeted avionics code generation capability which bridges those personnel involved in design and functional analysis of a system into the actual generation of the safety certified source code that goes into a finished display system. The resulting content will not only be ready for the deliverable system but also have a dramatic cost benefit to the documentation, simulation, and training efforts that follow as each of these can be supported from the same code generation environment used by the avionics engineering team. When approached with this tool set and the concepts put forward in this SBIR, several of this industry's major players stated that the successful completion of this effort would be extremely useful to their development effort. One of the leading developers of avionics, Rockwell-Collins, is a partner in this proposal and will be mentoring the effort. Several other companies have provided endorsement letters to the effort, which have been attached to this proposal.
Keywords: SIMULATION, DO-178B, OPENGL, GL STUDIO, HUMAN FACTORS, VIRTUAL PROTOTYPES, AVIONICS DISPLAYS
