Mater thesis: Automatic configuration of aircrafts and simulators i Linköping

Aeronautics, a business area of Saab, offers advanced airborne systems, related subsystems, unmanned aerial systems, aerostructures and services to defence customers and commercial aerospace industries worldwide. Aeronautics is also responsible for development, production, marketing, selling and supporting of the Gripen fighter.

Simulators and test rigs are used extensively in the development of fighter aircrafts. They allow for early feedback in development. There are hundreds of configurations evaluated in simulators and rigs for every configuration flight tested in a test aircraft.

Gripen E is being developed for multiple customers concurrently which means a further increase in the number of configurations that have to be created and evaluated. Consequently there is a need to investigate mechanism simplifying the creation of a configurations – similar to the configurators used in the automotive industry.

In our case the desired configurator shall consider the following factors

• Creation of an aircraft configuration based on available assets
• Adaption of the configuration to the target simulator or test rig
• Maintenance of information security regulations such that the configuration created is compliant with the security classification of the stakeholder.

The proposed project will require investigations in

• Product family management
• Information security
• Software development

A large number of configurations are realised in the development of a fighter aircraft. Some of these are realised as test aircraft and used for flight testing, but the vast majority are realised within a test rig or simulator. Hence, it is important to streamline the creation of aircraft configurations for use in simulators.

The following factors have to be considered when building a configuration:

• Correctness
• Suitability for use within a specific test aircraft, test rig or simulator
• Information security classification, ensuring that the configuration created is allowed for use from an security perspective within a specific context
• Management of development configurations with respect to both the tools and processes

Defining and building configurations is time consuming and there is a risk that there is a discrepancy between the intended and actual configuration. It would be desirable with automated user friendly support where a user can define

• The intended configuration
• The desired target (test aircraft, or a specific test rig or simulator)
• The appropriate information security classification

Goal:

Create an application and methods where the user can select aircraft- and simulator configurations with high assurance of included features over time and versions.