AgustaWestland
Wind River Helps Develop Safety-Critical Helicopter Touch Screen Unit
AgustaWestland chooses VxWorks 653 to design for future upgrades using a standards-based approach
AgustaWestland used VxWorks 653, which implements ARINC 653 partitioning of applications, as part of its modular, standards-based approach to developing a safety-critical touch screen for a military helicopter.
THE OBJECTIVE
AgustaWestland wanted to adopt an innovative approach for the development of a new safety-critical avionics display for a military helicopter upgrade program. The military helicopter had previously used avionics display control units within the cockpit and cabin of the aircraft, but the new project aimed to enable the implementation of additional functionality to meet new operational requirements.
HOW WIND RIVER HELPED
The state-of-the-art touch screen LCD display is integrated with the VxWorks® 653 real-time operating system, which implements ARINC 653 partitioning of applications. This open, extensible architecture has enabled AgustaWestland to configure the display to ARINC 661 graphics-specific requirements and to integrate its applications into the display system using a modular approach, which differs from the turnkey black-box approach used by traditional suppliers.
THE RESULTS
AgustaWestland successfully used this ARINC 653 and ARINC 661 standards–based approach for the development of a safety-critical touch screen avionics display, which has provided improved HMI navigation and achieved the operational requirements for a military helicopter upgrade program. VxWorks 653 provides an open foundation for modular and incremental certification, allowing AgustaWestland to exploit these capabilities in subsequent upgrades and future TSU variants.
