Under the Victoria programme, major manufacturers in Europe are striving to reorder and reduce the complexity of aircraft electronics
Europe's Victoria programme was originally named after one of the participating engineers' daughters, but that did not stop the acronym-peddlers from taking this neatly packaged title and trying to expand it into something untidy.
Oddly enough, that is the precise opposite of the programme's intention, which is to reduce the complexity of aircraft electronics by creating a simpler integrated architecture based around common, standardised components.
Victoria is the largest-ever European avionics project, a 47-month effort begun in January 2001 and costing €83 million ($100 million), half of which is funded by the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme. It has emerged from the Pamela and Nevada efforts and focuses on pushing forward the concept of integrated modular electronics.
This concept centres on a few basic principles: the use of common hardware to handle as many functions as possible; the decoupling of hardware and software to make modernisation easier; and the use of standardised data networks to link the various pieces of electronic equipment.
While these principles have been around for two decades, no single generic architecture has been developed for civil aircraft. Creation of a platform on which to validate an enlarged version of this concept drives the Victoria programme.
Victoria covers six functional domains within the aircraft - the cockpit, cabin, energy, utilities, on-board information and passenger services - and the work is shared between 34 consortium partners in teams led by the French, German and UK divisions of Airbus, Diehl Avionik Systeme, Smiths Aerospace and Thales Avionics.
Speaking at an update and demonstration of the activity in Athens, Thales Avionics' Joseph Huysseune, the Victoria programme manager, said components for all six domains have been developed and integration of the domains on the validation platform is under way. "This is not an isolated project," says Huysseune. "It is part of an ongoing thinking process. These results will cover the fundamental breakthrough needed for the development of airborne electronics systems for the next 20 years."
Huysseune stresses that a vital part of the programme is to influence the development of new, open, international standards. "We did not want to produce a system that would be the ownership of our team."
Single box
Standardised hardware will be used to host several applications in a single box of electronics. Aircraft electronics are currently typically housed in 100 individual boxes, each separately developed to handle dedicated functions. This payload can amount to 500kg (1,100lb) in system weight plus a further 500kg in wiring, and can take up a volume equivalent to a standard freight-hold container. "These boxes cannot share central processing units or common resources," says Airbus France's Jean-Bernard Itier. "It results in large quantities of maintenance spares being stored for each fleet at different places."
Dedicated line-replaceable units can also severely limit the opportunity for the aircraft's electronics system to evolve and incorporate new functions. The demand for additional aircraft functions will potentially double the amount of electronics required on aircraft - resulting in increased weight and exacerbating logistical difficulties.
Itier says the Victoria programme not only intends to reduce system diversity, but also aims to minimise obsolescence, particularly by ensuring the hardware and software remain independent. Rather than upgrading aircraft by replacing older hardware, airlines might simply be able to upload modified software.
Design of the Airbus A380 was locked too early for the aircraft to benefit fully from the Victoria programme, but Airbus senior executive Sylvain Prudhomme points out that the project has already contributed to "de-risking" some of the technology developed for the ultra-large jet. Future aircraft, yet to be designed, will be the true beneficiaries of the European collaboration, he says. "Victoria has opened new perspectives for the development of integrated modular avionics. We can't say that 100% of the work will find an application in one go. But there will be other opportunities for the next evolution of the products."
Airbus Germany's Walter Kraus, who leads Victoria's cabin domain effort, describes the current state of electronics integration on civil aircraft as a "nightmare". But he says the Victoria consortium has succeeded in demonstrating the potential for simplification.
System architecture for each of the Victoria programme's six domains has been constructed around common hardware blocks, including a core processing input/output module (CPIOM). The CPIOM is a standard hardware platform designed to host several independent aircraft functions. Further examples of the common hardware include the use of Ethernet data networks to provide communications and the incorporation of avionics full-duplex (AFDX) switching.
Within the cabin domain, for example, the CPIOM hosts inter-related functions such as cabin-pressurisation control systems, air conditioning and ventilation. These are also integrated with applications, including the fire- and smoke-detection system, as well as the electronics monitoring the status of the aircraft's doors and evacuation slides. Similarly, the utilities domain uses CPIOMs to host several important control functions, such as braking.
The utilities CPIOMs also handle functions such as fuel management, measurement and display, plus the landing-gear extension and retraction systems, and the aircraft's nose-wheel steering software. Another of the six domains, energy, employs the standardised architecture to control electrical power distribution.
New services
As well as adapting existing functions to the integrated modular electronics concept, Victoria aims to ease the introduction of new services on aircraft. Within the cockpit domain, the programme has demonstrated the implementation of a newly developed airport navigation function. This takes the form of a database that can upload graphical taxiway and runway maps, as well as airport information, to the pilot's navigation display. Cockpit domain leader Sylvie Robert says: "Within Victoria we are to demonstrate open architecture - we have had to select an application, and this one has been raised by pilots."
There are also moves to develop new passenger electronic services - such as internet and email access, three-dimensional moving-map displays, and on-demand television - and improved on-board information access for maintenance staff.
Future research spin-offs from Victoria are being considered, including the use of fibre-optic data communications and the development of smart, maintenance-free components. Airbus UK's Graham Dodds says airframers will benefit from fewer proprietary solutions, leading to greater competition to supply equipment and, as a consequence, reduction of costs.
But he points out the evolution of integrated modular electronics will alter industrial relationships between the airframer and suppliers, particularly where technical problems need to be resolved. "With a federated architecture the resolution route is straightforward because of the simple boundaries," says Dodds. "With an integrated modular electronics solution, a failure could arise from system design, allocation of resources, hardware or application software. This could easily involve four or more companies with different ideas about where to start resolving the failure."
Victoria programme manager Huysseune says that, once the project ends, the European aviation electronics industry will be in a position to promote a "coherent" integrated modular electronics concept and its new associated standards.
Given that all-new commercial aircraft, including regional aircraft, will probably utilise the concepts being developed by Victoria to some degree, the consortium estimates the potential global integrated modular electronics market at c300 billion over the next 20 years.
DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW / ATHENS
Source: Flight International
