Objective: Provide experimenters with real-time, onboard processing. In the early 1990s, I worked at NASA Armstrong, aka Dryden, and developed the architecture and initial hardware and software for the Airborne Research Test System for use on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft. This system combined deterministic rate-structured and multitasking operating systems. This enabled flight controls research to be combined with more conventional computer systems utilizing Ethernet and other communication protocols. The system architecture consisted of two VME backplanes connected by a dual-port memory, which provided communication between the real-time and multitasking operating systems.
The system was designed to be modular in both hardware and software. The modular hardware enabled easy modification of the flight LRU to support various missions and CONOPS. The modular, object-oriented software was configured using scripts, configuration files, and data files. The goal was to modify the system by recompiling the software. The system consisted of several VME cards, including processors, a dual-port memory board, and interfaces for the 1553 data bus, Ethernet, analog/discrete I/O, and IRIG time code. The hardware consisted of of-the-shelf VME boards and a ruggedized chassis that I designed and performed environmental testing. The VME boards were modified as needed in order to pass vibration, thermal, and altitude testing.
The ARTS concept and architecture had been in use at NASA for 25 years and ended with the Fourth Generation (ARTS IV). The ARTS IV system supports experiment development in Simulink that is auto-coded to run in the ARTS IV as part of the F/A-18 Intelligent Flight Control System