Flight control system rapid prototyping for the remotely-controlled elettra-twin-flyer airship

Nautilus S.p. A. is a small company investing in the design and development of a low-cost multipurpose multi-mission platform, known as Elettra-Twin-Flyer, which is a very innovative radio-controled airship, equipped with high precision sensors and telecommunication devices. In the prototype phase, Nautilus policy is oriented towards a massive employment of external collaborators to reduce the development costs. The crucial problem of this kind of management is the harmonious integration of all the teams involved on the project. This paper describes the integration process of the PC-104 on-board computer with the avionic devices, which are electronic systems characterized by complex communication protocols. Attention is focused on the testing, verification, validation and final translation of the embedded control software into the on-board computer, through techniques derived from the automatic code generation, such as Rapid Prototyping and Hardware-In-the-Loop. Copyright © 2006 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.