SBIR-STTR Award

Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is increasing worldwide, but multiple technical barriers restrict the greater use of UASs. The safe operation of UASs in the National Airspace (NAS) will require the vehicle to equipped with sophisticated avionics and flight software. The cost of verifying the flight software required for safe operation is a tremendous barrier to the growth of the technology. Windhover Labs intends to port NASAs Core Flight Software (CFS) to a UAS platform, and use new techniques and tools to lower flight software verification costs. This will provide a safe platform for UAS technology expansion. Windhover Labs intends to extend the existing safety critical pedigree of CFS to UASs. We will develop all the UAS platform specific applications and integrate them into a UAS avionics package. Windhover Labs will certify the CFS framework so application developers need only focus on the verification of their applications. With the basic UAS platform certification taken care of, UAS users can focus on their specific needs like precision agriculture, aerial survey, product delivery, etc. CFS is built around a software bus which allows for straightforward addition of this application specific software. Windhover Labs will also create an embedded test agent. This agent will provide an automated test engine that has access to all the application interfaces. This embedded agent provides an interface and execution platform for application developers to write effective verification tests. Innovative ground control software will enable automating the execution of these tests and the collecting of necessary verification evidence. The CFS framework is a perfect fit for powering the future of UASs in the NAS. Windhover Labs believes that providing this safety critical flight software framework and verification tools tailored for that framework lowers the technology barrier so many new UAS applications can be brought to market affordably.

The safety of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) flights is currently the responsibility of the pilot who is required to keep the vehicle within their line of sight (LoS). However, many UASs are capable of increasingly autonomous operation. As autonomy pushes against this boundary it is inevitable that the LoS requirement must be replaced with onboard intelligence to sense and avoid trouble without pilot intervention. The software making these decisions must be developed and tested to standards that ensure reliability and safety. Robust development, test, and operations tools will ensure quality development, adequate testing, and insightful operations of UASs.Windhover proposes to build upon their Phase I efforts to create a complete ecosystem of flight and ground software, as well as processes and standards for achieving the levels safety needed for operations of small UASs. The newest UAS operators are solving problems in their respective industries. They need a robust UAS software development tool chain that provides access to vehicle control in a safe manner that their existing IT resources and software personnel are already familiar with. Application developers building on the Windhover infrastructure use the entire tool chain to create robust test campaigns. The onboard test agent and ground automation provide a rich scripting environment that facilitates the efficient creation of multi-level test campaigns for verification and validation. These application test campaigns are built upon the pedigree of the Windhover framework that has been developed and tested with the same tool chain. Our Windhover software ecosystem will enable an exponential rate of innovation in the UAS software market and lead to novel solutions to the problems facing the integration of small UASs into the National Airspace (NAS). The Windhover ecosystem will become the defacto standard for safely developing, testing, deploying, and operating UAS applications in the NAS.