SBIR-STTR Award

Agile Development of a Common Engine Software Interface
Award last edited on: 2/4/2024

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : Army
Total Award Amount
$1,249,312
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
A18-080
Principal Investigator
Mark Spencer

Company Information

Avilution LLC

2000 Houston Goodson Way
Huntsville, AL 35824
   (256) 694-4569
   sales@avilution.com
   www.avilution.com
Location: Single
Congr. District: 05
County: Madison

Phase I

Contract Number: W911W6-18-C-0045
Start Date: 5/23/2018    Completed: 12/15/2019
Phase I year
2018
Phase I Amount
$149,918
Avilution proposes to develop a common engine interface architecture aligned with the FACE Technical Standard, providing an ion to allow common engine information to be accessed from a variety of FADECs or engine controllers. The work will build on existing XFS ECU interfaces and the FACE alignment work already in progress in order to develop a common interface for FADECs implemented as FACE UoPs. This effort will start with examining the current engine interfaces, including the FADEC-like ECU interface implemented in XFS and alternative FADECs, to come up with a common set of data elements that could be used for any FADEC implementation. Next, Avilution will develop an architecture with layers of ion that maximize the variety of FADECs that can be interfaced, while also eliminating or minimizing the amount of additional code to interface with these FADECs. Finally, the architecture will be aligned with the FACE Technical Standard and strategies for conformant UoPs (which could be implemented in Phase II) will be developed.XFS architecture strategy implementation, data element translation, and FACE conformance verification will occur in the Phase I Option.

Phase II

Contract Number: W911W6-20-C-0009
Start Date: 7/5/2019    Completed: 2/26/2021
Phase II year
2019
Phase II Amount
$1,099,394
Avilution proposes to further enhance its commercially available eXtensible Flight System (XFS) to provide a FACEĀ™ 3.0 aligned Transport Service (TS) supporting the capture, display and use of data from multiple engine Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC) and similar systems. Avilution already provides a software platform for the creation of avionics solutions which leverages a compact, simple code base with powerful user supplied configuration to support rapid, iterative development of avionics systems for multiple types of aircraft. Rather than a complex monolithic program, Avilution created XFS as a collection of microservices built around a common platform and interface library with a common data model. Unlike traditional solutions, the XFS product is licensed to its customers as software (including any available relevant certification artifacts) on a once-per-serial number of aircraft cost model. This allows the end customer to further enhance the product through configuration or even code changes without the requirement that Avilution be involved. The model also encourages maximum usage and utility of the software without a cost penalty. XFS software has been used in a range of aircraft from two seat STOL aircraft to electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.