Aerospace Control Systems Compliance Review

By _Test and Verification Solutions Blog

July 15, 2016

Project Overview

A global provider of high integrity electronic control systems to the aerospace industry selected TVS to undertake a compliance review of the system requirements for an aircraft Steering Control Unit (SCU) which takes inputs from the pilot tiller and rudder control pedals and controls the nose wheel position and movement.

Project Requirements

The purpose of the compliance review was to confirm that the system requirements:

• Comply with higher level (customer) requirements
• Are traceable to higher level requirements or are derived requirements resulting from the solution design
• Are consistent and accurate
• Are verifiable
• Have accurate algorithms
• Are compatible with the target computer
• Conform to standards

For carrying out the requirements review, the customer had previously used a comprehensive checklist for each requirement and set of related requirements based on the objectives of DO-178B. At the start of the project TVS delivered a terms of reference identifying the sources of information, the scope of the review, how the checklist will be applied to the system requirement, the mechanism for recording review results, progress reporting and deliverables.

The TVS Solution

The compliance review project was executed with a blended team of verification engineers with one engineer onsite and the remainder of the team working offshore. This arrangement minimized cost and ensured that any issues and queries could be rapidly turned around by the onsite engineer thus also minimizing project timescales. One of TVS’s UK-based senior consultants oversaw the whole process, monitored progress and provided weekly reports which also served as input to weekly project meetings.

Projects Outcomes

Although the timescales for the compliance review were demanding, TVS delivered the review results to schedule as a result of careful monitoring of progress and the ability to flex verification engineering resource as required. A number of issues were identified including a small number of serious issues and TVS also identified a number of opportunities for process improvement in the generation and documentation of system requirements. The customer accepted the compliance review and commented very favorably on the success of the engagement with TVS.