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The Use of Model-Based Techniques for Real-Time SW Development at Piaggio Aero

Amar Bouali
Esterel

Giuseppe Cinà
Piaggio Aero Industries

Piaggio Aero has decided to deploy state-of-the-art model-based techniques for the rapid prototyping and development of safety-critical real-time software in the context of their new avionics program. Model-Based techniques offer high-level and mathematically sound techniques for the specification, simulation, development, verification and validation of real-time control software. The Piaggio Aero program is called P.1HH HammerHead, a new, state-of-the-art Unmanned Aircraft System designed for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions. Piaggio Aero has the challenge of developing the integrated system which controls all the platform functions, the Vehicle Control & Management System (VCMS) in a way compliant with DO-178, the international safety standard applicable for airborne systems software. Piaggio Aero has selected Esterel SCADE, a software engineering model-based environment to develop the core control functions of the VCMS. In this paper, we give the early results and benefits obtained by Piaggio Aero by using such a model-based approach compared to the traditional software development techniques using classical programming languages.