Automatically cross-checked design for multidisciplinary development of Avionics Systems

Air vehicles in aviation are increasingly required to provide better service. This demands more sophisticated High-Integrity Avionics Systems (HIASs) which usually make conventional development methods go beyond analysis and modelling capabilities. The HIAS development process involves different engineering disciplines in which developers build their specific models of a same HIAS. It requires to performing cross-checked requirements analyses manually to comprehensively evaluate all the HIAS representations. This is a costly and risky process. The objective of this paper is to devise an approach that merges information from different HIAS models so diverse developers are able to collaborate with each other. This paper proposes a development environment that aims to reduce the co-development effort by allowing engineering stakeholders to deal with a shared modelling repository. The modelling methodology proposed merges the notation of requirements into a single database for analysis and design. Thus, the impact of changes in the notated parameters from each of the above requirements can be simultaneously reflected other notated parameters. This paper shows results from a proof of concept based on the development of an Automated Flight Control System (AFCS). The case study combines notation of control, hardware, and software requirements. Concluding remarks and future research work are also presented.