FACE Technology Demonstration August 17, 2017 FACE Vehicle Control, Navigation, and Guidance Architecture Experiments FACE is a Trademark of The Open Group
BLUF PEO Aviation funded a FACE reference implementation (BALSA*) Started with Remote Car to learn FACE/BALSA Using BALSA, the Air Force Resilient EGI team (on IRaD funding) rapidly prototyped an end-to-end vehicle control, navigation, and guidance system (for air and ground) Demonstrated using a Piper Cub scale model (The Piper Cub scale model is electromechanically the same as a "real airplane ) Resulting software is portable to real aircraft with reduced integration times Shadow, Scan Eagle, Raven, Hunter, Apache, A-10, etc. Also integrated the safety-certified FACE TSS from RTI with Green Hills INTEGRITY RTOS Result is a technically advanced and operationally ready framework ready to make any aircraft, missile, or spacecraft operate with a FACE computing environment * Basic Avionics Lightweight Source Archetype 2 http://www.opengroup.org/face
Component Integration into FACE Components designed with FACE interfaces Embedded GPS/INS interface and Alt-Nav interfaces: magnetometer and LIDAR (IOSS and PSSS apps, 2-3 days ea.) Already had interfaces and created new FACE apps Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) app that estimates aggregate PNT variables (PCS app, 3 man months) New app, FACE integration took a few days Control Surface Servomotor interfaces (aileron, elevator, flaps, rudder) (IOSS and PSSS apps, 2 days ea.) Already had interfaces and created new FACE apps Propulsion interfaces (IOSS and PSSS apps, 2 days ea.) Already had an interface and created new FACE apps Flight Control app that has a stability augmentation system and does auto-launch, auto-land and waypoint navigation (new PCS app, 3 man months) Partitioned into two OFPs 3 http://www.opengroup.org/face
Modified BALSA Data Flow Phase IVa R/C Airplane OS PCS PYTHON AutoNav App C++ R-EGI App (GPS/INS) ATC Manager 12 11 4b 10 4c 4a 3c 3c 4c 4a 4b 5 OS TSS 13 3c 3a 3b 6 OS PSSS Servo Controller EGI/IMU Controller EGI/GPS Controller Aircraft Config ADS-B Out Operating System Language Runtime Application Framework Health Monitoring OS 14a-g IOS 15a-g Servo API 2c IO Service EGI/IMU 1c 2a IO Service EGI/GPS 1a 2b Local Config 7 UDP Writer 8 OSS Servo Drivers EGI/IMU EGI/GPS Device Driver 9 Ethernet N.B. Servos: 14a, 15a Elevator; 14b, 15b Rudder; 14c, 15c Right Aileron; 14d, 15d; Left Aileron; 14e, 15e Right Flap; 14f, 15f Left Flap ; 14g, 15g Electronic Speed Control (Throttle) 4 http://www.opengroup.org/face
Lessons Learned Integration time reduced by a factor of 4 in most cases Tasks that would normally take a month took a few days Integration testing was almost trivial, the FACE data model method reduced data mismatches and integration/interoperability problems FACE reference implementation (BALSA) is essential; Bonus that the source code was available Concise reference implementation of the FACE standard made it easy for developers to get to the productive work of EGI/Alt-Nav design Very easy to work with FACE Standard compared to other DoD standards Joint Unmanned Autonomous Systems High Level Architecture IDI experience and technology allowed the programmers to pick up on BALSA easily; Some BALSA training could further reduce development time 5 http://www.opengroup.org/face
Conclusion Demonstrates that the FACE approach enables integration of avionics components w/reduced integration times (and thus cost) FACE Technical Standard and its supporting ecosystem is sufficiently mature to warrant incorporation into government solicitations FACE Reference Implementation (i.e. BALSA) has proven a good investment as it greatly aids the process Developers will always need a publicly available reference architecture implementation Ideas for improvements going forward will be prototyped and tested Accordingly, BALSA will be advanced to incorporate the FACE Technical Standard, Edition 3.0 6 http://www.opengroup.org/face
7 http://www.opengroup.org/face Questions?
Keys To Success BALSA, the existing FACE reference implementation Essential, and a bonus that the source code was available Commercial products like the FACE TSS from RTI exist to upgrade this Data Model Training Probably need specific training in EA and GME as well Integration/Interoperability Framework Training IDI experience and technology allowed the programmers to pick up on BALSA easily Could be supplanted by BALSA training 8 http://www.opengroup.org/face
Recommendations Create a data modeling tutorial for the community and teach it at the meetings in the evenings Same for BALSA Advance BALSA to v3.0 of the FACE standard Must always have a publicly available reference architecture implementation Ideas for improvements going forward should be prototyped and tested 9 http://www.opengroup.org/face