Supporting Mixed-Criticality Avionics Workloads on Multicore Platforms

Principal Investigator: James Anderson
Funding Agency: Northrop Grumman
Agency Number: 2705892

Abstract
This proposal is directed at the development of software design and validation methods for supporting mixed-criticality workloads in avionics systems. The primary target of this research is unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Next-generation UAVs will be much more sophisticated in terms of their planning and decision-making capabilities than current designs. This will result in a significant increase in the computational workload that must be hosted on board. It would clearly be desirable to host this workload on as few processors as possible, to reduce weight and volume. This can be partially accomplished by co-hosting applications of different criticalities on the same computing platform. The overall hardware infrastructure can be further reduced, while enhancing processing capabilities at the same time, by using multicore processors. For such reductions to be possible, operating-system (OS) infrastructure must be developed that allows co-hosted subsystems of different criticalities to be "isolated" from one another. The major goal of this project is to produce this needed infrastructure, with an emphasis on providing isolation from a real-time perspective. This research will help Northrop Grumman maintain its lead in advanced mission management systems for autonomous, unmanned systems. In this arena, stiff competition can be expected not only from U.S. companies such as Boeing and Lockheed, but also from suppliers from other countries such as Israel, the U.K., and Italy.