Controlling UAVS

摘要

As flight-control and avionics systems of military and commerical aircraft are required to deliver more functionality and perform more complex missions, their onboard software becomes increasingly complicated to design and produce. Flight-control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the added complexity of autonomous or remote control. UAV system architecture is highly sophisticated and requires the configuration of such items as a vehicle management controller, actuators, data-link receivers and transmitters, payload assembly, a GPS receiver, a power generator, and a battery. Within limited budgets and aggressive schedules, BAE Systems Controls in Johnson City, NY, and Los Angeles, CA, routinely has to deliver reliable, flight-critical software that operates remotely and autonomously from a ground control station. The company must also create designs that allow both the hardware and the software to be cost-effectively integrated and migrated to new applications. Integration of new and existing applications with a real-time operating system (RTOS) can be very complicated and labor intensive. BAE has successfully integrated its CsLEOS RTOS with The MathWorks modeling and code generation tools on a variety of manned and unmanned aircraft programs. Within the last year, CsLEOS and automatically generated code has been deployed in the integrated vehicle management system computer on the Northrop Grumman Pegasus X-47A UCAV (unmanned combat aerial vehicle); the flight-control computer designed for the Boeing-built C-17 Globemaster III U.S. Air Force transport; fly-by-wire flight control for Sikorsky's S-92 and H-92 helicopters; and various other current and future systems being developed.