Using Electronic Data Sheets for an Automatic Detection of Peripheral Devices in a Smart Wing’s Digital Infrastructure

New aircraft wing generations strive to be multi-functional and more intelligent. They comprise a large number of electronic system components, which leads to a high integration effort. A major part of the integration effort arises from the integration of the system components, which could be automated in the future through peripheral detection. Those peripherals have to be integrated in a function-independent manner and used simultaneously by multiple functions in the wing. To fulfill those requirements a new system design concept, the so called smart digital infrastructure (SDI) is introduced. The SDI presents a platform concept that offers a peripheral detection function for peripherals located in the wing. The SDI considers the Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) concept by, e.g, implementing partitioning mechanisms, which makes it suitable as the wings local avionics. As a result, functions can be executed on the same system infrastructure. This paper presents two methods for automatic detection of peripherals in that context. The usage of electronic data sheets is evaluated for smart and dumb peripherals. Focusing on the IEEE 1451.4 as well as the CANopen standard, which define such data sheets. Moreover, the development and implementation of an automatic detection concept based on those data sheets will be shown. The concept will be suitable for smart and dumb devices. It is minimalistic and driven by the idea to be implementable by more than the presented standards of peripheral detection. Integrated Modular Avionics hardware is used to host the identification function and command the detection. Memory devices connected to an Arduino are used to provide Electronic Data Sheets (EDS). The IMA-Module and the Arduino exchange data via predefined CAN messages.