Our Decade in Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA)

James Lyke, AFRLQuinn Young, Jacob Christensen, David Anderson,

Space Dynamics Laboratory

August 5, 2014

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Outline

• History / Background• Overview of Plug-and-play Technology• Current Status• Road Ahead

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History/Background

• Motivation• Early History• Flight Projects and International Collaboration• Maturation / Transition

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The ProblemMulti-year schedule slips, multi-billion dollar overruns has become typical….

“Whether or not cost overruns are inherent in U.S. military satellites under development, we cannot say for sure. We can say that these overruns seem to be endemic. There are about 10 major satellite systems under development by the DOD, including the Advanced Extremely HighFrequency (AEHF) satellites, the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) satellites, the GPS IIR-M/IIF, the GPS III, the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), the National Polar-orbiting Operational EnvironmentalSatellite System (N-POESS), the Space Based Infrared System-High(SBIRS-High), the Space Radar (SR), the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), and the Wideband Gapfiller Satellites (WGS).All of these programs are over budget (way over, in some cases) and behind schedule or delayed.” [1]

1. Marco Cáceres , “Cost overruns plague military satellite programs”, Aerospace America (publication of AIAA), January 2006, pp 18-20, 23. Specific URL (working as of 2 Jan 08): http://www.aiaa.org/aerospace/images/articleimages/pdf/AA_Jan06_II.pdf .

“What are the things that these programs share in common that make it seem as though cost overruns are part of their nature?”

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Problem Formulation

Create a spacecraft in less than one week

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The Barriers of Complex Systems

• Tweaking existing processes will not revolutionize• Requires fundamentally new approaches• Standards alone are not enough

The “Marching Army”

End Use

Operator

Acquistion AgentSpace Systems Prime (BD)

Space Systems Prime (PM)

Orbit Analyst

Mission/Payload Analyst

Launch Segment Systems Engineer

Ground Segment Systems Engineer

User Segment System Engineer

Space Vehicle System Engineer

Communications Subsystem EngineerPropulsion Subsystem Engineer

Structures and Mechanisms Subsystem Engineer

Thermal Subsystem Engineer

CDH Subsystem Engineer

Electronics Engineer

Electrical Engineer

Payload Subsystem Engineer

Power Subsystem Engineer

AI&T System Engineer

Space Systems Prime (SE)

Space Segment Systems Engineer

GNC Subsystem Engineer

Software Engineer

Structural Analyst

Thermal Analyst

Optical Engineer

Materials Engineer

Radiation Analyst

Mechanical Engineer

Controls Analyst

Configuration Manager

Test Engineer

Manufacturability Engineer

Survivability Engineer

Reliability Engineer

Parts Engineer

EMI/EMC Engineer

Buyer

Subcontractor

Facilities

Technician

Courtesy of Michael Enoch, LM

Complex Systems

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Benefits of open, modular, plug-and-play approach

• Build systems dramatically faster (100x ?)– Simplify integration and test

• Promotes hardware and software re-use• Open architecture

– Data exposed in a natural way (vs. obscure / proprietary)– Everyone can “play” – Best ideas win

• More robust / resilient (a la carte redundancy)• Last minute changes are easy• Future-proofing: Focus on invention and creation

of missions, not the “tyranny of interface”

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Early History

• “Responsivonics” / SPA Workshops (2003-2006• Internal testbeds / PnPSats

PnP-Sat-1

PnP-Sat-2

CubeFlow – over 600 served…5 August 2014

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Flight Projects / International Collaboration

• Flight Projects / Major Insertion Efforts

• ReEntry Space Exp. (2007)• TacSat-3 On-orbit SPA (2009)• Operationally Responsive Space

Office Modular Space Vehicle • International Programs• Sweden “NAPA” joint program

– QuadSat nanosatellite– ORS-Squared 6U cubesat– TechEdSat 1U cubesat– SPA Research Cubesat (SPARC)-1

• International Standardization (CCSDS)

TechEdSat, 2012Sweden/JAXA/NASA

QuadSat/PnP-1 (launch in 2015)

Modular Space Vehicle (MSV)

TechEdSat

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Maturation / Transition• Small Space Meets Big Space

– Independent review (September 2011)– Subset of “Space Plug-and-play Avionics (SPA)” Ideas

renamed to “Modular Open Network ARCHitecture(MONARCH)”

– Review panel directs SPA to engage with “big space” community

• Study initiatives– Global Positioning Satellite Study Projects

• MOOG / Broadreach• Northrop Grumman

– Hosted Payload Development• Standard Network Adapter for Payloads

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driver

USB interface chip

plug-and-playcomponent

“platform”

electronicdatasheetcomponent

Appl

iqué

Sens

or

Inte

rfac

e M

odul

e (A

SIM

)

interface module

“platform”

plug-and-playcomponent

Overview of Plug-and-play Technology

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Space Plug-and-play AvionicsTechnologies

Core technologies• Single-point interfaces (e.g. SPA-S) and

protocols• Appliqué Sensor Interface Module (ASIM)• Electronic datasheets (XTEDS)• Software -- Satellite data model (SDM)“Extension” technologies• Synchronization, testing• Future: optics, radio-frequency, wire, thermalOther important supporting concepts• Pushbutton toolflow

What is SPA?Data-centric plug-and-play approach

Self-describing Components

SPA promotes composable systems (hardware and software)

C&DH

Host

x x x

Plug-and-play middleware

Cam

era

x x

Thru

ster x

Thru

ster

Radi

o

x

GPS

x

Pow

er

x

Network

Composable Applications

APP APP APP APP

Plug-and-play aware software

APP APP APP APP

C&DH

Host

x x x

Plug-and-play middleware

Cam

era

x x

Thru

ster x

Thru

ster

Radi

o

x

GPS

x

Pow

er

x

Network

Self-organizing Networks

I’m a gyro.

I’m a router.

electronic datasheet

development tools

Interface stack – “Standard” Compared “Plug-and-play” Interfaces

Mechanical (connector set, pin definitions)

Physical Layer (correct voltages, 1’s and 0’s, bytes/words)

Transport Layer (structure of messages)

Network Layer (sources destination)

Semantic Layer (data representation)

Application Layer (managing system, implementing mission)

Data bits

Fully specified

Fully specified

Fully specified

Fully specified

xTEDS, SDM/ SSM

RS-422 SPA

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Applique Sensor Interface Module (ASIM) Putting Components on the Network

Legacy Conversion 1“loosely coupled”

Native incorporation

Legacy Conversion 2“tightly coupled”

Ove

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d (s

ize,

wei

ght,

pow

er)

Lega

cy C

onve

rsio

n 1

Lega

cy

Conv

ersio

n 2

Nat

ive

S/W

(a) (b) (c) (d)

(a) (b) (c)

(d) “software-only”

(e)

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SPA >> Hardware >> Self-Organization

SPA-x Network

SPA-y Network

Bridge Node

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SPA >> Software >> Self-description

• eXtensible Transducer Electronic Datasheet (xTEDS)

• Electronic datasheets embedded inside hardware and software components

• Conveys “semantic precision” through a common data dictionary (CDD)

• Enforces order in the “LEGO universe” of SPA (features only exist if known through xTEDS)

xTEDS

(facet)Interface

(facet)Interface

Message

Variable

Message

Variable

CDD

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Current Status

• Standards development• “Last-mile issues”• On-going research projects

– NAPA 3 – SPARC-1– Flexible Weapons

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Standards Development

• Ten approved standards documents (AIAA)• On-going work with Office of Director of

National Intelligence (ODNI) to create national standards – SUMO (“Space Universal MOdulararchitecture”)

• International work – CCSDS committee on Spacecraft Onboard Information Systems (SOIS)

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“Last Mile” Issues

• Refers to the “rough edges” of PnP that remain barriers to ease of use / maturation– Ontology and representation– Component / application association– Open source intellectual property

• Examination of other factors relating to maturity / acceptance in “big space” enterprise– Network determinism– Implementation in mature (TRL 9) silicon

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MONARCH Activity:Network Determinism Study

• Goal: Correlation of network simulation to experiment

• Advantages: support for scalability, fault-tolerance, and controlled excursions to study network-related phenomenon (e.g. latency, bottlenecking, jitter) with rigor

• Hypothesis: spacecraft can be reduced to traffic models– We can translate into OPNET– We can generate scripts to configure

MONARCH networks to emulate the same benchmarks

OPNET model of spacecraft

Traffic model of Israeli satellite (partial)

Standard Component Template Library (SCTL)

• For each node in a taxonomy, define a standard template structure (i.e., canonical)

• Template must be sensible, reasonable, minimal (hard to prove it’s the “right one”)

• SCTL is the set of all templates

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On-Going Research Projects

• NAPA3 (Sweden) – SPA Research Cubesat– 6U modular development

• Flexible Weapon (USAF/ Eglin AFB)– The development of flexible, weapons on-demand

based on SPA technology

SPA Research Cubesat (SPARC-1) 6U concept

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Interoperability for hosted payloads

Hosted Payload Spacecraft (hosting platform)

hosted payload interface

Hosted Payload

Spacecraft (hosting

platform)

hosted payload interface unit

adap

ter

adap

ter

Host (SSM, apps)

customized spacecraft interface

customized payload interface

(a)

(b)

(Demonstrations Apr 2013 – Jan 2014, three Phase 1 SBIR projects)

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Road Ahead

• The Frontier of Plug-and-play– Push-button toolflow– Configurable wiring systems– Composable and Compilable systems on demand

• Challenges– The many open architectures and standards– Proving disruption and benefits

• Establishing an Open-source Repository for this work

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Ultra-Rapid Upfront Specification Generation: Mission Driven Tools

Component Icons

Connections

Drag & Drop Design

Mission Goals and Requirements Component Capabilities

************************************************************************** CATEGORY RULES **************************************************************************predCategory( catidReferenceFrame ).predElementOf( catidReferenceFrame, catidReferenceFrame ).

predCategory( catidCoordinateSystem ).predElementOf( catidCoordinateSystem, catidCoordinateSystem ).

************************************************************************** INTERFACE RULES **************************************************************************

predInterface( iidIEnvironmentObject ).predElementOf( iidIEnvironmentObject, catidEnvironment ).

predInterface( iidIMomentumStorage ).predElementOf( iidIMomentumStorage, catidActuator ).

************************************************************************** COMPONENT RULES **************************************************************************predComponent( clsidCEarth ).predElementOf( clsidCEarth, catidReferenceFrame ).predElementOf( clsidCEarth, catidEnvironment ).fncIn( iidIEnvironmentObject, clsidCEarth ).

Desig

n Ve

rific

atio

n Ru

les E

ngin

e

Automatic Verification

Performance Modeling

Itera

te

1.

MISSIONCAPTURE

2.

SPACE-CRAFT

PROFILER

3.

AUTO-GENERATE

“EVERYTHING”

4.

COMPARESIM VS. THEORIGINALMISSION

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Challenges

• Open Architectures / Standards– So many to choose from– Open is not enough, but

articulating “what is” has caused even more problems

• Proof of disruptive benefits – How can a fair comparison of

plug-and-play even be done?– Can the proof only be done by

retrospection?

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What Does a Successful Transition Mean

• Baseline into programs of record is one of the highest aspirations of AFRL research (warfighter impact)

• Insertion into eclectic flight programs is beneficial (TRL++, tipping point?)

• Long-term impacts are more difficult to measure but can be equally profound

• Leaving a sound repository of intellectual property and documentation– Preserves the legacy of a significant

investment– Allows others to follow and extend

the research

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SPA/MONARCH Server• Web Based Source Code Repository• Source Code

– SPA Services Manager (SSM) core middleware– ASIM Core Library development framework to implement different

components on physical hardware – SPA TEST Suite (SPATS) to validate a SSM service, manager, or component

with the SPA standards– Eclipse SPA/MONARCH development plugins to design, build, and compile

components for the SSM– Standard Component Template Library (SCTL)– MONARCH Studio tool suite to facilitate SSM development including a Log

Analyzer, Lookup Service Editor, xTEDS System Validator, System Explorer and Network Map

• Documentation• Issue Tracking

toolssoftware VHDL/Verilog

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Summary

• Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA) has been one of aerospace’s most ambitious attempts to modernize the approaches of building systems

• Primary emphasis was original to enable building systems extremely quickly by reducing interface uncertainty and system complexity

• Many of the problems we tried to tackle ten years ago still remain and seem to have universal appeal (medicine, munitions, test equipment,..)

• The ideas remain controversial and provocative• An open repository is being readied to expose ideas

for broader study (to space and non-space)

5 August 2014