Comprehensive Validation Platform for Complex Aircraft Avionics Systems

Abstract

Since 10 years, aerospace industry is facing an unprecedented cycle time reduction driven by high competition between Aircraft manufacturers. To safely sustain such optimizations, virtual test is becoming essential in avionic development cycle. Modern aircraft validation techniques rely heavily on virtual test but integration of this activity in the validation process is still far from being optimal.The goal of this paper is to present a novel approach, in terms of process and technologies, to maximize reuse between virtual testing and more conventional system validation strategies for avionics systems. Index Terms - Virtual test, model based testing, Verification, validation I. Introduction. The efficiency of Integration, Validation and Verification (IVV) process is probably the most important success factor in the development of complex aircraft systems. An effective IVV process allows detecting mistakes and discrepancies in the design earlier in the development cycle. As an example, the foreseen production rate for the AIRBUS A30X (A320 successor) is about 30 aircrafts per month, 2 years after the Entry Into Service. At the first flight of the A30X, 100 aircrafts should be in Final Assembly Lane (FAL) (1). Any corrective operation with such forecasted delivery ramp-up would have heavy consequences in terms of costs and time delays and this impact would be all the more tragic since the correction would occur late in the development cycle.