Human involvement in dynamic reconfiguration of Integrated Modular Avionics

The degree of flexibility brought to the next generation of aircraft by integrated modular avionics (IMA) concept potentially enables dynamic reconfiguration of the avionics systems, e.g. as a means of fault containment. So far, most of the research in this field has focused on real-time task scheduling and dynamic resource (re)allocation. In this paper, we show that these are just some aspects of the more general problem of IMA reconfiguration. Focusing on one of the sub- problems, human involvement, we provide evidence of the need and criticality of pilot-system real-time interaction during reconfiguration. In this regard, we present a novel approach to solve the complex combinatorial problem of IMA reconfiguration in real-time whilst providing support for pilot's involvement by means of automatic generation of explanations of reconfiguration actions, in order to augment her situation awareness. Our approach is based on explanation-based constraint programming.