Авіаційно-космічна техніка та технологія (Aug 2022)
Issues of selection and qualification of software development tools for aircraft engines electronic control system
Abstract
The introductory part of the article provides information that Element JSC is one of the leading enterprises in Ukraine in the scientific and technical direction "Electronic systems for measuring, parameters monitoring and controlling aircraft engines". Because of cooperation with Ivchenko-Progress SE and Motor Sich JSC, Element JSC has manufactured more than 250 EEC units of the RDC-450M family for various modifications of the AI-450 Turboshaft/Turboprop engines. The software of these EEC units is certified according to the DO-178B/ED-12B. The software of subsequent EEC units under development is planned to be certified according to the state-of-the-art DO-178C/ED-12С guideline, and development tools qualified according to the DO-330/ED-215 guideline will also be used in development. This article is devoted to the issues of selection and qualification of such tools. A review and brief analysis of modern commercial software development tools for embedded systems, including those applied to the STM32 family microcontrollers, which are widely used in the JSC Element products, is given. The qualification of the user required for operating these development tools is indicated. Information is given on software verification tools, features of the interpretation of the “verification” term in DO-178C/ED-12C. As an example, the SPI tool is given, which has been successfully used for many years at Element JSC for the functional development of EEC units. The process of determining the level of qualification of instruments using three special criteria is described, an algorithm for qualification is given, and examples from the practice of Element JSC are given. Information is given on recently appearing commercial DO-178 support packages for embedded software developers in the qualification of tools, an algorithm of operation is given, shortcomings and possible problems are assessed. Finally, it is concluded that the process of selecting and further qualification of tools has a serious impact on labor costs in the certification of software for embedded systems for aviation applications.
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