Mission-Driven Perception and Autonomy Software Development for Air Systems

June 11th, 2021

Bernard Dion, Max Najork, Nicolas Dalmasso, Mazen El Hout

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Agenda

1. Target Applications and Objectives

2. Technical Architecture and Workflows

3. Summary and Benefits

Back-up slides:

Proposed Demo Use Case

Technical Architecture And Scheduling

Customization of Flight Dynamics

Certifiable AI-based Workflow

Targeted Applications and Objectives

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Targeted Applications

1. Air Vehicle Management Systems

2. Formation Flying & Swarming

3. Manned-Unmanned Teaming

4. UAM & EVTOL Systems and Operations

5. Air-to-Air Refueling

6. Landing on Aircraft Carrier in the Sea

7. Mission Optimized Engine Controllers

8. Missile Threat Neutralization

9. Satellite Space Controls & Missions

10. Planet Discovery Robot Mission

…

Selected for demo material

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Automation increases sensor and software contribution to mission success

Mismatch

Costly and time-consuming iterations as operational feedback is received mainly after the development of the system

PlatformDeveloped

Air Vehicle Developer

Operational Need

Air Vehicle Operator

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Mission-driven Perception and Autonomy Software Development

Mission ModelSTK

Sensor Simulation VRXPERIENCE

Mission and Control Software

SCADE

PlatformDeveloped

Air Vehicle Developer

Agile validation and adjustment of the system through digital reference models

Develop autonomy function

Analyze operational merit

Operational Need

Air Vehicle Operator

Digital and Executable System and Mission Representation

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Connecting Digital Mission Engineering and Platform Development

Concept of Operations Development V&V Training Mission Planning and Execution

Digital Mission Engineering

Classical Dev and V&V Tools

Enabling Continuous Digital Thread Across the full Product Life-cycle

Mission-driven Platform Development Digital Mission Planning and Execution

Use Cases, Solution Architecture, and Workflows

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Reference Use Cases

Subject to standardization at SAE / EUROCAE working group

3. Vehicle and Mission Management Software Validation

1. Certifiable Perception Trainingusing Supervised Learning

2. Certifiable Motion Planning using Reinforcement Learning

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Ansys Modeling and Simulation Ecosystem for Embedded Systems

Fully modular and extendable to fit the individual use case

Mission, World, Platform

STKReinforcement Learning Gym

Labeled Sensor Data for Supervised Learning

Machine Learning & Optimization APIs

Custom Flight Dynamics

…

Custom & Third-Party Models

High-fidelity and Reduced Order Models

Other Ansys

Fluids, Optics, Electronics, Mechanical,

etc.

Probabilistic Scenario Variation

Automatic Scenario Generation

Results Analytics

Simulation Orchestration optiSLang

Scenario Orchestration

& Analysis

Camera

LidarRadar

Virtual Reality

VRXPERIENCE

Sensors & HMI

SCADE

Embedded Software

Mission & Vehicle Management Software

Display Software

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Certifiable Perception Training using Synthetic DataUse Case 1

STK & VRXPERIENCE Third Party SCADEoptiSLang

optiSlang & VRXPERIENCE Sensors

Cam

era

LID

AR

Ra

da

r

Prepare Scenario Generate Data Train Model Validate Model Generate Safe Code

Subject to standardization at SAE / EUROCAE working group

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Simulating Physics-Based Sensors in Mission Context

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Fully automated synthetic data and label generation pipeline

Images are automatically created and labeled (bounding box, segmentation, positions, any other simulation ground truth)

Inference result after training on VRXPERIENCE images

High accuracy data and labels based on ground truth informationNo need for manual labeling or additional processing

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Certifiable Motion Planning using Reinforcement LearningUse Case 2

STK & VRXPERIENCE

VRXPERIENCE, optiSLang, SCADE

+ Third Party SCADEoptiSLangSCADE

Prepare Scenario Implement Agent Train Model Validate Model Generate Safe Code

Embedded Software

Reward Function

Subject to standardization at SAE / EUROCAE working group

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Flight example 1: Robustness against disturbances

Operating VTOL vehicle automatically maintains position at waypoint despite perturbations by stick.

System performs despite manual perturbations

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Vehicle and Mission Management Software Validation Use Case 3

SCADE, STK, VRXPERIENCE SCADE

STK & optiSLangSCADE

Prepare Scenario Implement SW Run Simulation Validate Model Generate Safe Code

Embedded Software

STK & VRXPERIENCE

Embedded Displays Virtual Reality Experience

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Formation Flying with Actual Vehicle Control SW

Other Queries:• Communications

Filtering• Multi-hop

Communications• Sensor Coverage• Jamming• Radar Signature• Terrain Masking• Navigation

Accuracy• Terrain Following• Etc.

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Implementing and Simulating SW

Formation Manager

Flight Management

Flight Guidance

Auto Pilot

Flight Control

Engine Control

FlyBy Mode

Hold Mode

Formation Mode

Summary and Benefits

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Summary and Customer Benefits

Enabling customers to develop and certify platforms more quickly, at a higher degree of autonomy, in full digital continuity.

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