SBIR-STTR Award

Windhover Labs proposes to create an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to enable rapid software development of NASA’s Core Flight System (CFS) projects by managing and auto generating flight software configuration and table data, integrating real time commands and telemetry, and providing an integrated scripting engine for testing. Open extensible, flight software combined with a highly integrated development environment will allow manufacturers and researchers to quickly develop, verify, and validate novel design concepts. Windhover Labs has developed a CFS based open-source flight software backbone and ecosystem, called Airliner, for Groups 1 and 2 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) (less than 55 lbs) that is designed specifically for small Single Board Computer (SBC) based avionics boards. The ecosystem already includes a robust simulation, extensible ground control system, as well as a Python based test automation system. This proposal will develop the integrated development environment that, when combined with Airliner, will facilitate and accelerate the development of the next generation of UASs of all configurations. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) The proposed Integrated Development Environment can also be used by any project that uses Core Flight System (CFS). Windhover Labs has supported 7 space related projects in the past year that use CFS. CFS is rapidly being accepted as a common framework for all current and future space related projects. To date, every project is forced to develop their own set of tools to manage the numerous configuration items. A common Integrated Development Environment to manage all configurable items would be a welcome asset to the CFS toolchain. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Over 1 million drones have been registered with the FAA to date. Windhover is targeting its Airliner commercial drone flight software for the new commercial drone market. This proposed IDE will complete the Airliner tool chain with easy to use configuration management, accelerating Airliner market penetration among enthusiasts, researchers, and drone manufacturers.

Windhover Labs proposes to create an inexpensive fault tolerant avionics package for Groups 1 and 2 Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) (less than 55 lbs).nbsp; Windhover Labs has already developed an open-source flight software backbone and ecosystem, called Airliner, built upon Core Flight System (CFS) created by NASA, with a path to FAA certification.nbsp; The new avionics will have 2 sets of computing cores. One high speed set of cores running Linux and hosting non-critical software.nbsp; The other computing cores run in lock-step and host critical software. The two zones of criticality execute completely separate operating systems, preventing faults from crossing zones and allowing zones to be reset independently of one another.nbsp; The avionics package also includes an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), allowing limitless extensibility. Combined, the platform provides maximum flexibility with reconfigurable hardware and high speed computing as well as maximum reliability with a lock-step processor, all in a low cost package about the size of a deck of playing cards.nbsp;In addition to the increased safety and flexibility, this proposal also includes integration of NASArsquo;s Autonomy Operating System (AOS) directly into Airliner as native applications, providing Airliner a path to Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) integration.nbsp; This proposal makes this possible with the increased performance, with no sacrifice in safety. Current avionics platforms capable of running Airliner flight software take up to 80% of the processing power performing just minimal stable flight. The proposed avionics has up to an 1100% increase in performance, depending on the configuration, providing ample processing power to run both Airliner and AOS with margin to spare for growth and additional functionality.nbsp; Integration with AOS not only provides a significant increase in functionality, but the development process of AOS fits well with the Airliner development, providing a smooth path to FAA certification.