Applying LVC to testing and evaluation of DAA systems

Testing of Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems ranges from the use of pre-defined inputs, through part-task and full mission simulations up to flight testing. Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) data-sources yield the same observation to a client of this data and provide the opportunity to achieve a seamless transition between the various phases of testing. The interface of a system under test is likely to change during early development stages and thus the design of the LVC environment must ensure that such changes do not propagate through the LVC environment in such a way that it unnecessarily affects other components. Modularity is the key enabler for separating functionalities that have different design-evaluation cycle times. The current state-of-the-art in software development for real-time distributed systems enables a modular approach using industry standard middleware. This paper discusses how such an LVC environment has been realized and provides an overview of its use in several flight tests of DAA systems.