Automatic Configuration of Aircraft and Simulators

Abstract: For development, sales, verification and validation purposes, flight simulations of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen E/F are often performed. For these type of simulations, one needs to be able to choose both a specific aircraft variant and a specific simulation setup and then generate the appropriate build files to build the simulator. This configuration process is currently mainly done manually and has numerous points of variation, some of these are in: ·       ACSim Kernel which simulates the components and systems of the aircraft. Around 150 models can be chosen out of almost 1000 total. ·       ACCS, the aircraft computers containing the aircraft software applications. Here, dozens of configuration-specific applications can be included in a configuration. Restricting the configuration possibilities are relations and constraints between components, systems, models and applications, but also credentials of the user, limiting available options. In this thesis it is examined to what degree this configuration process can be automated with a variant management tool, such as pure::variants, and possible ways of implementation are presented. A conclusion is that that the configuration of ACSim Kernel build files can be automated to a high degree, and for the ACCS system architecture studied in this thesis, build files can be automated to a lower degree. It is also shown how pure::variants can be used to filter its models for secrecy purposes, and how helpful system properties can be represented in pure::variants models. A suggestive example of how pure::variants can be used with short implementation time is provided and more labour intensive implementation suggestions are discussed.