EU-funded aerospace and defence systems project takes flight
The European Commission is taking part in a new project that aims to develop a new model-based software development framework for complex real-time aerospace and defence systems. Together with leading European real-time technology developers, industrial manufacturers and research organisations from France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, the European Commission will be involved in the 'Model-based methods and tools for avionics and surveillance embedded systems' (MADES) project until July 2012. The European Commission has partly funded the project to the tune of EUR 2 450 000 under the 'Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The aim is to develop an advanced framework covering all phases of real-time systems development, from design to code generation and deployment. This platform-independent framework will maintain the robust reliability essential for safety and mission-critical applications while providing improvements in developer productivity and reusability of code, lower costs for maintenance and retargeting to newer multicore platforms. The long-term goal of the MADES project is to develop new model-based verification and simulation methods, along with new model-based code generation methods and tools that will address both conventional programming languages and hardware description languages. The MADES tools will provide developers with the ability to more easily reuse existing software components, ensure consistency of complex systems, and exploit advanced multicore hardware platforms. Flavio Fusetti, Director of Aerospace & Defense Business at coordinating institution TXT e-solutions in Italy, says: 'Embedded systems developers require new tools and methods based on recognised standards to design complex applications utilising model-driven development methods. The MADES project will provide an evolutionary path that integrates existing development methods providing a way forward to more advanced model-based design. These development techniques will also enable real-time systems developers to achieve higher performance levels, greater reliability, and scalability with increasingly sophisticated multicore platforms.' The MADES project applies a comprehensive approach in researching new tools and technologies that support design, validation, simulation, and code generation, while providing better support for component reuse. New annotation and verification methods are also being developed to ensure overall system consistency. Furthermore, the project will develop advanced code-generation technologies that will address both conventional programming languages and hardware description languages. These will provide compile-time virtualisation techniques that can cope with the increasing complexity of modern multicore hardware architectures. 'The MADES consortium partners are experts in each phase of model-driven systems development. This project will bring new innovations to the process of transforming software designs into deployable systems that have the required reliability and assurances for safety-critical applications,' comments David Lounsbury, chief technical officer at The Open Group in the United Kingdom, another project partner. 'We're confident the powerful model-based tools already being evaluated by industrial partners will allow applications developers to be more productive and manage expected increases in system complexity.'For more information, please visit: MADES: http://www.mades-project.org(opens in new window)
Countries
Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom