Cockpit Display Frame Verification for COTS GPU Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) GPUs used in modern aircraft cockpit displays lack the necessary safety assurance level (DAL) for reliably displaying safety critical data, prone to errors from manufacturing defects, aging, and environmental factors like ionizing radiation and electromagnetic interference, posing risks of misleading information that can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Innovation Solution
A display system that includes a graphics generator, display control unit, and monitoring unit to generate and verify safety critical data using encoding markers, ensuring accurate display by comparing input and intermediate data, and generating a confirmed video frame or alert signal based on data correspondence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If COTS GPUs are used in cockpit displays, then cost is reduced, but reliability and safety assurance level deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system embeds encoding markers in the video signal before display, creating a preliminary verification mechanism that proactively detects errors before they can mislead the pilot. This preliminary action allows COTS GPUs to be used while maintaining safety through automated error detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring unit continuously analyzes the video signal for encoding markers and compares intermediate data with input data, creating a feedback loop that verifies the integrity of safety-critical information displayed to the pilot. This feedback mechanism compensates for the lower inherent reliability of COTS GPUs.
2Device complexity
If COTS GPUs are used for displaying safety critical data, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision and data accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Encoding markers serve as an intermediary element embedded in the video signal, enabling verification of data accuracy without requiring a more complex GPU system. The markers act as a mediator between the COTS GPU output and the pilot's perception, ensuring data integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the verification mechanism by embedding encoding markers that replicate essential data elements in an detectable form. This copying approach allows simple COTS GPUs to maintain accuracy through external verification rather than requiring complex internal error correction.
3Reliability
If encoding markers are embedded in video signal, then reliability of safety critical data is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The encoding markers are merged into the existing video signal stream rather than requiring a separate verification system. This combining approach embeds reliability verification within the normal display operations, minimizing additional device complexity while improving safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring unit performs multiple functions: it decodes encoding markers, compares intermediate and input data, and generates alerts. This multi-functional approach consolidates verification tasks into a single unit, reducing overall system complexity despite the added reliability measures.
Data Source
AI summary
Display system for a vehicle operable by a user, the display system comprising: a graphics generator configured to acquire input safety critical data indicative of one or more operative parameters of the vehicle and generate, based on the input safety critical data, an intermediate video frame signal indicative of an intermediate video frame, wherein the intermediate video frame comprises a first frame region that is a visual representation of monitoring safety critical data and that includes encoding markers uniquely associated to the monitoring safety critical data, wherein the monitoring safety critical data and the input safety critical data reciprocally correspond in a condition of correct working of the graphics generator and do not reciprocally correspond in a condition of incorrect working of the graphics generator; a display control unit coupled to the graphics generator and configured to receive the intermediate video frame signal and determine the monitoring safety critical data based on the encoding markers; a display monitoring unit coupled to the display control unit and configured to receive both the input safety critical data and the monitoring safety critical data determined from the encoding markers, reciprocally compare the input safety critical data and the monitoring safety critical data and generate a command signal based on said comparison, the command signal being indicative of the correspondence, or of the lack of correspondence, between the input safety critical data and the monitoring safety critical data, wherein the display control unit is further configured to receive the command signal and, based on the command signal and the intermediate video frame and if the input safety critical data and the monitoring safety critical data correspond, generate a confirmed video frame signal indicative of a confirmed video frame that is configured to be displayed to the user and that is a visual representation of the monitoring safety critical data.