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In the aerospace industry, methods for virtual testing cover an increasing range of test executions carried out during the development and test process of avionics systems. Over the last years, most companies have focused on questions regarding the evaluation and implementation of methods for virtual testing. However, it has become more and more important to seamlessly integrate virtual testing into the overall development process. For instance, a company’s test strategy might stipulate a combination of different methods, such as SIL and HIL simulation, in order to benefit from the advantages of both in the same test process. In this case, efforts concentrate on the optimization of the overall process, from test specification to test execution, as well as the test result evaluation and its alignment with methods for virtual testing.

The application of a communication infrastructure for hybrid test systems is currently a topic in the aerospace industry, as also in other industries. One main reason is flexibility. Future laboratory tests means (LTMs) need to be easier to exchange and reuse than they are today. They may originate from different suppliers and parts of them may need to fulfill special requirements and thus be based on dedicated technologies. The desired exchangeability needs to be achieved although suppliers employ different technologies with regard to specific needs. To achieve interoperability, a standardized transport mechanism between test systems is required. Designing such a mechanism poses a challenge as there are several different types of data that have to be exchanged. Simulation data is a prominent example. It has to be handled differently than control data, for example. No one technique or technology fits perfectly for all types of data.

This paper presents an overview of a project called “Modelling and Simulation Tools for Systems Integration on Aircraft (MISSION)”. This is a collaborative project being developed under the European Union Clean Sky 2 Program, a public-private partnership bringing together aeronautics industrial leaders and public research organizations based in Europe. The provision of integrated modeling, simulation, and optimization tools to effectively support all stages of aircraft design remains a critical challenge in the Aerospace industry. In particular the high level of system integration that is characteristic of new aircraft designs is dramatically increasing the complexity of both design and verification. Simultaneously, the multi-physics interactions between structural, electrical, thermal, and hydraulic components have become more significant as the systems become increasingly interconnected.

Hybrid test systems are gaining more and more significance in the aerospace industry. At the heart of these systems is a standardized communication infrastructure. There are many challenges when designing the communication infrastructure. For example, it requires very specific knowledge to boot a hybrid system, manage its configuration process, and start and stop the execution of applications, such as simulations, panels or recorders. Likewise, when testers use a heterogeneous test environment, they cannot commit themselves too much to every single test means and its special characteristics. Nevertheless, testers must always be able to monitor and control every test system. This means, they must be able to determine the current overall system status and the current status of its components and parts. Examples for this are hardware components, such as real-time processors and I/O boards, as well as software applications, such as real-time simulations models on the test system.

Multi-physics interactions between structural, electrical, thermal, or hydraulic components and the high level of system integration, characteristic of new aircraft designs, is increasing the complexity of both design and verification processes. Therefore the availability of tools, supporting integrated modelling, simulation, optimization and testing across all stages of aircraft design remains a critical challenge. This paper presents some results of the project MISSION (Modelling and Simulation Tools for Systems Integration on Aircraft). It is a collaborative task being developed under the European Union Clean Sky 2 Program, which is a public-private partnership bringing together aeronautics industrial leaders and public research organizations based in Europe. The first levels of integration of different models and tools proposed in the MISSION framework will be presented, along with simulation results.

Automotive technology is rapidly changing with electrification of vehicles, driver assistance systems, advanced safety systems etc. This advancement in technology is making the task of validation and verification of embedded software complex and challenging. In addition to the component testing, integration testing imposes even tougher requirements for software testing. To meet these challenges dSPACE is continuously evolving the Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) technology to provide a systematic way to manage this task. The paper presents developments in the HIL hardware technology with latest quad-core processors, FPGA based I/O technology and communication bus systems such as Flexray. Also presented are developments of the software components such as advanced user interfaces, GPS information integration, real-time testing and simulation models. This paper provides a real-world example of implication of integration testing on HIL environment for Chassis Controls.

This paper presents a demonstrator developed in the European CleanSky2 project MISSION (Modelling and Simulation Tools for Systems Integration on Aircraft). Its scope is the development towards a seamless integrated, interconnected toolchain enabling more efficient processes with less rework time in todays, highly collaborative aerospace domain design applications. The demonstration described here, consists of an open, modular and multitool platform implementation, using specific techniques to achieve fully traceable (early stage) requirements verification by virtual testing. The most promising approach is a model based integration along the whole process from requirements definition to the verified, integrated (and certified) system. Extending previous publications in this series, the paper introduces the motivation and briefly describes the technical background and a potential implementation of a workflow suitable for that target.

In recent years, the concept of hybrid test systems consisting of real and virtual parts emerged in the aerospace industry. The concept features a communication infrastructure that provides the standardized transport mechanisms required for interoperability. For example, this allows system integrators to easily reuse and exchange laboratory tests means, even if they originate from different suppliers. The “Virtual and Hybrid Testing Next Generation” (VHTNG) research project aims at creating a standard for such an infrastructure. One central aspect is the unified monitoring and control of the test equipment. So far, VHTNG has primarily focused on monitoring and controlling related aspects of the test bench in a local environment. However, recent events have repeatedly shown that it becomes increasingly important to monitor and control test benches remotely.