Aircraft Computing Supervision for Adaptive Software Execution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft on-board computing devices face limitations in computational capacity and flexibility due to certification requirements, making it difficult to execute sophisticated software applications and adapt to new needs, while existing offloading solutions face issues with bandwidth, latency, and reliability.
Innovation Solution
A supervision device and electronic system that allows for dynamic allocation of computational resources between on-board and ground-based systems, enabling flexible execution of software applications and real-time monitoring of on-board devices, with a peripheral computing device managing local and remote execution of applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If certified on-board computers are used to ensure security and compliance, then reliability is improved, but computing capacity and adaptability deteriorate due to pre-allocated resources and rigid structure
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides computing functions into two segments: certified on-board computers that handle critical safety functions with guaranteed reliability, and peripheral computing devices that provide flexible, high-capacity computing for non-critical applications. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific purpose without compromise.
Solution Approach 2:
A supervision device acts as an intermediary between the peripheral computing device and the certified on-board computer. It monitors the peripheral device's operation, validates its outputs, and ensures compliance with aviation standards, thereby bridging the gap between uncertified high-performance hardware and certified safety requirements.
2Productivity
If more computing resources are allocated to on-board devices to execute sophisticated software applications, then productivity is improved, but device complexity and certification costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses peripheral computing devices that are essentially standard, uncertified consumer-grade computers. These devices can be upgraded, replaced, or modified without the enormous costs associated with recertifying aviation-certified systems. The supervision device ensures that despite their non-critical status, they operate safely within defined parameters.
3Device complexity
If software applications are offloaded to ground computing centers, then on-board device complexity is reduced, but bandwidth requirements and latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically determines whether to execute software locally on the peripheral computing device or offload it to ground computing centers based on real-time conditions such as available bandwidth, latency requirements, and computational task characteristics. This dynamic approach optimizes the trade-off between local processing speed and remote processing capacity.
Data Source
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AI summary
This monitoring device is configured to communicate with an onboard peripheral computing device on an aircraft, said onboard peripheral device being configured to run software applications in connection with one or more certified operating onboard electronic devices, the monitoring device comprising a human-machine interface and being configured to receive, from said peripheral computing device, observability signals including data relating to local computing resources of the onboard peripheral computing device and information relating to the execution of at least one of said software applications,the monitoring device (82) comprising at least one computing processor configured to calculate (90) an operating state of said peripheral computing device and an execution state of said at least one software application from the received observability signals and to display (92) said operating state and said execution state on said human-machine interface.