A semi-automated approach for requirement-based early validation of flight control platforms

Abstract

With the current trends in aviation like Single-Pilot-Cockpits and more autonomous functions in aircraft, flight control avionics are bound to become more complex. Future platforms will need to compensate for one or even both pilots, which will require systems that are more reliable. However, state-of-the-art development of flight control avionics does not yet support these demands efficiently. The development process involves numerous stakeholders who are communicating without streamlined interfaces. This leads to a slow and error-prone process during development. New methods are required to improve efficiency and to pave the way for future technologies. In this work, the authors introduce a semi-automatic toolchain which derives usable code for the configuration of devices from natural language requirements. The requirements are noted through modular components, stored as a model-based configuration file and are transformed into executables in the last step. This novel approach allows engineers to input their expertise when defining requirements, while removing tedious transformation tasks. Through automatic configuration testing, the validity of the approach is confirmed.