Interactive Cockpits Applications: Specification, Prototyping and Validation using a Petri-nets based Formalism

Arnaud Hamon (1) , Célia Martinie (2, 3) , Philippe Palanque (2, 3) , Eric Barboni (2, 3) , David Navarre (2, 4) , Adrienne Tankeu Choitat (2)

1 IRCCyN - Institut de Recherche en Communications et en Cybernétique de Nantes
2 IRIT-ICS - Interactive Critical Systems
3 UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier
4 UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole

The purpose of ARINC 661 specification is to define interfaces to a Cockpit Display System (CDS) which is used in many types of aircrafts cockpits such as A380 from Airbus, B787 from Boeing or Falcon 2000D from Dassault Aviation. ARINC 661 provides precise information for communication protocol between application (called User Applications) and user interface elementary components (called widgets). It also provides a detailed description of the widgets themselves (attributes, events …). However, in ARINC 661, very little information is given about the behaviour of these widgets and about the behaviour of an application made up of a set of such widgets. This paper presents a quick overview of the formal description technique called Interactive Cooperative Objects (ICOs) and its application for modelling the various elements of ARINC 661 specification. This formal description technique defines (in a precise and non-ambiguous way) all the elements of an interactive application compliant with ARINC 661 specification and especially their behavioural aspects which is definitively overlooked in the standard. The application of the formal description technique is shown on an interactive application to be used in an interactive cockpit. This application supports pilots' activities while cooperating with Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) using a Data-Link (DL) communication technology. Such communication must follow a predefined protocol called CPDLC (Control-Pilot Data Link Communication). Using this application as a case study, we present how ICOs are used for modelling Interactive Widgets, User Applications and User Interface servers (in the ARINC 661 specification context). Lastly, we present briefly how such models can be exploited for verification and validation purposes of interactive cockpits applications.

Mots clés: ARINC 661; Formal methods; Interactive Systems

Domaines: Systèmes embarqués

Arnaud Hamon, Célia Martinie, Philippe Palanque, Eric Barboni, David Navarre, et al.. Interactive Cockpits Applications: Specification, Prototyping and Validation using a Petri-nets based Formalism. European Congress on Embedded Real Time Software and Systems (ERTS 2012), 3AF Midi-Pyrénées: the French Society of Aeronautic and Aerospace; SEE: the French Society for Electricity, Electronics, and Information & Communication Technologies, Feb 2012, Toulouse, France. ⟨hal-02189909⟩