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Reliable flight control system architecture for agile airborne platforms: an asymmetric multiprocessing approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2019

Shibarchi Majumder Open the ORCID record for Shibarchi Majumder [Opens in a new window] ,
Jens Frederik Dalsgaard Nielsen Open the ORCID record for Jens Frederik Dalsgaard Nielsen [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas Bak Open the ORCID record for Thomas Bak [Opens in a new window]  and
Anders la Cour-Harbo Open the ORCID record for Anders la Cour-Harbo [Opens in a new window]
Shibarchi Majumder*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Jens Frederik Dalsgaard Nielsen*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Thomas Bak*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Anders la Cour-Harbo*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
*
sm@es.aau.dk
jdn@es.aau.dk
tba@es.aau.dk
alc@es.aau.dk
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Abstract

System software subsystems in an unmanned aircraft system share hardware resources due to space, weight, and power constraints. Such subsystems have different criticality, requirements, and failure rates, and can cause undesired interference when sharing the same hardware. A component with high failure rate can reduce the reliability of the system unless a fault containment mechanism is adopted.

This work proposes an asymmetric multiprocessor architecture to establish isolation at the hardware level for distributed implementation of safety-critical subsystems along with user defined payload subsystems on the same hardware with minimally reduced reliability of the system. To achieve that, subsystems are strategically segregated in separate processors, connected to an on-chip protective interconnect for inter-processor communications. A custom watchdog and reset mechanism are implemented to reset a specific processor without affecting the entire system if required. The architecture is demonstrated on a FPGA chip. In addition, an example of an optimised distribution is provided for a specific flight control system with five subsystems.

Keywords

Mixed-criticality systemreliable-multiprocessingembedded flight computerasymmetric-multiprocessingreliable embedded systemunmanned aircraft system
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 123 , Issue 1264 , June 2019 , pp. 840 - 862
Copyright
© Royal Aeronautical Society 2019 

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Footnotes

*

This research is funded by Danish Independent Research Foundation under grant number 6111-00363B.

References

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