ATACS- Automated Targeting And Checkout System

The problem of long and costly development cycles for Guidance Navigation and Control software is not unique to the MDA's Targets and Countermeasures Program. The development of GN&C software for spacecraft can take even longer to design, produce, and validate. In order to shorten the time-to-flight for spacecraft GN&C systems, ICS and Swales Aerospace have devised a software architecture and toolset which will greatly reduce the development and validation time required to field new GNC algorithms on Spacecraft. Our Phase 1 Automated Targeting And Checkout System (ATACS) effort will modify and enhance our scheme for spacecraft GN&C and adapt it to meet the stated needs of the MDA's Targets and Countermeasures program. ATACS will use a model-driven approach to define Launch Vehicle (LV) control system parameters and control laws and auto-generate the embedded systems code in an extremely cost-effective manner. The round trip time to modify the model, generate code, load the code to the target processor, and validate functionality will be reduced to hours. Model-driven tools will allow rapid reconfiguration of algorithms and flight profiles. ICS/Swales will demonstrate a highly automated test and checkout capability with a dynamic GN&C simulator for Verification and Validation of the Launch Vehicle algorithms.