Data Distribution Service (DDS) for Cost-Effective Mixed-Criticality Flight Control Systems

UAVs must also operate over civilian populations; this imposes strict safety requirements. Traditionally, developers verify and validate entire software systems as a whole. This ensures that a problem in a non-critical component does not impact a safety-critical component. Unfortunately, testing the entire system is cost prohibitive, especially since it requires retesting when there is any change in any component. RTI proposes to develop a"mixed-criticality"separation middleware that allows building systems from independently-certified components. We will base our work on the widely-adopted Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard, extending it to separate communications by levels of criticality. As the leading DDS vendor, RTI is uniquely qualified to deliver and support this important technology. We will also work with top partners. Verocel, the leading provider of expertise and services for Software Verification, will provide tools and expertise to ensure that we build a certifiable design. Wind River Systems, the leading real-time operating system vendor, will ensure that our design works with separation kernels. Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon will ensure practical application. This team will deliver a quality, certifiable architecture that works on real UAVs. This proposal will enable new UAV mission capabilities at affordable cost. BENEFIT: RTI was founded on the premise of successfully commercializing advanced research. RTI enjoys a 100th Percentile DoD SBIR Commercialization Achievement Index (CAI), placing it in the top 1% of companies receiving SBIR funding. Our basic strategy has two facets: (a) Providing research to AFRL will further the overall UAV flight control community"s effort to speed the adoption mixed-criticality technologies, thereby increasing general market demand for RTI products and services. (b) This research also will help in the certification and acceptance of our own"RTI Data Distribution Service, Safety Critical Edition"product offering. RTI Data Distribution Service, Safety-Critical Edition has been designed to the rigorous standards for safety certification, but is not yet certifiable. The overall market for this technology is emerging. To date, several commercial vendors are supplying pieces of the overall solution. We see our domain expertise, product performance, and customer support as primary differentiators between our potential competitors and us. We expect the proposed work done for this mixed-criticality SBIR effort will have applicability to both commercial and government unmanned system customers. Our architecture will let developers assemble precertified distributed components on an advanced UAV. It will support mixed-critical components and information flow, enforcing tightly controlled interactions. The final system will enable lower cost, lower power, smaller UAV designs that can execute complex missions. Most importantly, it will enable piecewise certification without requiring recertification of the entire UAV. This mixed-criticality distributed architecture will transform UAV designs.