An Open Source Domain-Specific Avionics System Architecture Model for the Design Phase and Self-Organizing Avionics

State-of-the-art avionics systems are standardized, e.g. the computing system of the flying vehicle is composed of pre-defined and pre-qualified modules of a standardized avionics platform. Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) is the most popular representative, but not the only one. Two challenges of standardized avionics platform are system design and configuration. Since the high numbers of functions, modules, and constraints for modern air vehicles, bringing up the optimal system architecture is a difficult job if carried out manually. The subsequent process of creating millions of configuration parameters is time consuming and error prone. Both issues are similar and are, in general, processable by algorithms. Algorithms proved to provide significant support for current system design issues and might be mandatory in future, when avionics become self-organizing and the design and configuration are derived by the platform itself. Automated design already proved its advantages and self-organizing platforms started to be in development. Having the right and rigid data format for this purpose is mandatory. A suitable data format must hold all requirements necessary to proof the validity of the avionics architecture and take reliable organization decisions. It must be independent of technologies, in terms of hardware, software, and configuration. It must have a structure simple enough to be used in qualified embedded systems. Existing modeling approaches, e.g. AADL, have different purposes as detailed system design, dynamic simulations, virtual qualification, and lack especially rigidity and simplicity. The Open Avionics Architecture Model (OAAM) is a domain-specific model representing avionics system’s architectures designed to be used offline or online in the automated organization of avionics systems. It was implemented using the EMOF modeling standard and the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). It is available as open source. This article explains the structure and the purpose of OAAM.