Space Plug-and-Play Avionics

Denise Lanza, SAICJim Lyke, AFRL/VS

Don Fronterhouse, SSIScott Cannon, USU

Wheaton (Tony) Byers, SAIC

Introduction

• DoD’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) – Dramatic reduction in timescale for fielding an operationally

useful capability – New paradigms in designing, building, integrating, launching,

and bringing online tactical space systems• To achieve ORS, a number of technology and culture barriers

must be addressed– Low-cost launch capability (e.g. DARPA Falcon program)– Avionics and software have significant hope for improvement

utilizing “plug-and-play” (PnP) technology• AFRL Responsive Space Advanced Technology Study (RSATS)

identified PnP technologies, especially in avionics, as providing enabling benefit to the cause of ORS

• AFRL is spearheading an effort to develop a SPA standard under the auspices of the AIAA

Traditional Satellite Avionics

C & DHProcessor

Interface Card

Interface Card

Interface Card

Interface Card

Bac

kpla

ne (e

.g. P

CI B

us)

Non-programmableTransceiver

(comm)

GNC

GNC

GNC

PowerDistribution

temp telemetry

Payload (s)

Interface Card

temptemp

temp

Custominterface

Custominterface

Cust.int.

Cust.int.

Cus

t.int

.

The non-modular part

Plug and Play AvionicsHigh Performance Computing

AdaptiveWiring

Manifold

MSP

SpaceWire

SpaceWire

SpaceWire

SpaceWire

SpaceWire

Optical SensorHDR

Sensor

Software Radio

Software Radio

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensorµSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

µSensorµSensor

MSP

MSP

MSP

MSP

Space-Wire

FP

FP

FP

FP

FPFPFP

FP

FP

FP

FPFP

Plug-and-play network

FP

FP

FP

FP

FPFPFP

FP

FP

FP

FPFP

FP

FP

FP

FP

FPFPFP

FP

FP

FP

FPFP

Key Tenets of SPA

• Machine-negotiated interfaces– Use of commercial standards for physical layer interface

– Self-describing component-objects (xTEDS & CDD)

– Managing the component-object collection using Satellite Data Model (middleware)• Distributed implementation to break need for centralization

• Addition of power delivery and synchronization

• Applications are written to be PnP aware based on services independent of components– Often more than one source of a desired quantity

– Component availability based upon need

A Phased Approach To SPA Development

Spacecraft Interface Standards

GENERATION 1

Spacecraft Interface Standards

GENERATION 2

Spacecraft Interface Standards

GENERATION 3

2004 2007 2010

Rel

ativ

e In

vest

men

t

Generation 1 Generation 2 Generation 3

JWSD-2 JWSD-3 JWSD-4 JWSD-5 JWSD-6

Gen “0”

Spacecraft as a collection of objects

ComputingSystem

radi

o

SPA-U linkSPA-S link

Spacecraft bus

e f

c dhg

a b

Payload

High-speeddownlink

a-h Spacecraft bus components

SPA-U Appliqué Sensor Interface Module (ASIM)

TBD Connector

STD USB

USBI/FCkt

IPPS SYNC

+28V

CPU

Reg. 3.3VDC

Switched28V

DIGITAL I/O (16)

+28RET

SINGLEPOINTGROUND

XTEDS

SRAM

NVRAM

AnalogFunctionCircuit

DACS(2)

A/D (16)

RS-422 Conv.

Ctrl

JumperArea

DIGITAL GND

A GNDX 28V

X 28 RETX +3.3VX 3.3V RET

SPORT (2)

CLK

1-8

9

10-25

26-41

42-43

44

45-48

49-5253-5455-56

MISC CTRL (4) 57-60

616263646566676869

GalvanicIsolation?

TEST CKTTEST BYPASS CONNECTOR (4)

70-73

ASIM bridges legacy components to the Plug and Play network

SPA-S = SpaceWire + SPA-U

SpacewireCrossbar

SPA-U

Hub

8SpaceWire

4USB

2Power

2Sync

1Single Point Ground

SPA-U

Combination of high-speed data transfer and device control

Satellite Data Model

CameraThermometer

GNC CompCurrentMonitor

RF

Application#1

Application#2

Application#N

Mission Code / Scripts

Application#i

Sensor Manager (SM) SM SMSM

CPU

ProcessorManager

Task Manager Data Manager

Sate

llite

Dat

a M

odel

SPA Development Status

• There are currently four working groups that have been defined by the SPA Technical Committee to develop SPA technologies and documents:– Gen 0. The Gen 0 working group pursues the development of near-term

hardware interface concepts based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies

– Gen 1. The focus of the Gen 1 working group is similar to Gen 0, but focuses on the creation of radiation-hardened reference implementation.

– Software. The software working group emphasizes the development of the Satellite Data Model, the definition of xTEDS, and the creation of a Common Data Dictionary

– Advanced Technology. This working group explores trade studies and technologies and concepts beyond the Gen 1 horizon.

• SPA Guidebook - Draft– Provides a comprehensive overview of the SPA-U, SPA-S, and SDM

technologies– Spawn a series of standards and guidelines under the auspices of the

AIAA as the primary standards development organization.

Recently Released SPA-U Design Hardened Components

Design-hardened structured ASIC

Test Chip Submission

USB DeviceController

USBPHY

8051Style

InterfaceUSB

A0DATA

RDnWRnCSnINTR

Test Chip Submission

USB HubController

USBPHY

USB

USBPHY

USB

USBPHY

USB

USBPHY

USB

USBPHY

USB

DownstreamPorts

USB 1.1 five port hub

USB 1.1 Endpoint

Design-hardened structured ASIC

Recent Demonstrations

Pre-prototype Gen0 PnP Concept Plug and Play Panels

Gen0 Radiation Test Board Prototype AWM

Summary

• Introduced a new approach to achieving plug-and-play (PnP) in aerospace systems motivated by Operationally Responsive Space

• SPA seeks to achieve a PnP technology capable of rapidly forming a dynamic self-organizing system exploiting machine-negotiated interfaces

• Commercial interconnect standards, including USB, Spacewire, and Ethernet have been chosen for initial implementation

• Interconnect standards by themselves are not sufficient to achieve PnP– Distributed power – Time synchronization

• Software infrastructure makes possible a deeper idea for PnP– Support automatic component identification independent of

computing topology– Provide a data based approach to software development– Device independent interchange, robustness, and flexibility