Flight Tracking and Messaging Systems

Transcription

1 Flight Tracking and Messaging Systems Communications Group Final Project Report Joshua McCamey Samuel Hurne Spring 2011

2 1 Table of Contents Abstract 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Narrative 4. Project Plan 5. Future Work 6. Conclusion Appendices

3 2 Abstract The FTMS team is working with an organization named JAARS to upgrade their in-flight Automatic Flight Following System (AFFS). The original AFFS system requires a hardware upgrade to allow for continued manufacturability. FTMS team members Joshua McCamey and Samuel Hurne are addressing this issue by integrating an upgraded microprocessor with the AFFS interface. The team has made progress towards developing a testing environment and system firmware for the upgraded unit. The work done on this project will ensure the continued ability of JAARS to provide flight tracking solutions to mission aviation organizations.

4 3 Introduction For mission aviation organizations, there is a general need for adequate flight tracking systems. In the 1990s, JAARS developed the Automatic Flight Following System (AFFS) in order to meet the need of a standard flight tracking system for mission aviation organizations. MSI and UIM also showed some interest a more flexible version of the system, since each organization uses distinct communication methods. However, the microprocessor of the original AFFS system is now obsolete and can no longer be manufactured. As a result, the Flight Tracking and Messaging Systems (FTMS) project team has identified two main objectives for the system: 1) Upgrade the original AFFS system to allow for manufacturing of new systems, and 2) Increase the modularity in the system for use with other communication methods. To date, the upgrade of the original AFFS system is underway and progress has been made in developing the system with other communication systems. Background Mission aviation organizations serve to facilitate missionary transport, humanitarian relief and community development for remote rural locations throughout the world. For those organizations, there is a general need for flight tracking systems, since the remote locations where they serve lie outside of radar range. A Flight tracking system needs to provide a means

5 4 to for a flight monitor to follow changes in flight itinerary while en route, and a safety contingency in the event that a plane fails to arrive at its destination due to accident or other unforeseen circumstance. Also, desirable is a means to pass simple text messages involving critical flight information between the pilot and the flight monitor on the ground. For tracking the system can utilize the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, but the way to transmit that location and other critical flight information varies with the particular mode of communications used by an organization. In the 1990s, JAARS, one mission aviation organization, developed a low-cost flight tracking system entitled the Automatic Flight Follow System (AFFS). The system uses a High- Frequency radio communications method with a wireless modem in order to communicate with ground stations. Ground stations are outfitted with a program developed for the system entitled AFFSWin. The program allows for tracking of flight coordinates by overlaying flight paths over maps. It also provides an interface for ground stations to communicate with pilots via text messaging. JAARS received a large amount of feedback from pilots, and the system was designed to house a control unit within the airplane cockpit (one of the most highly regulated environments in the world). Other mission aviation organizations took notice of the system, including Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and UIM Aviation. These organizations desired to use the AFFS system with different communication systems. JAARS would continue to use the Pactor radio modem interface, MAF desired to work with a Codan radio, and UIM desired to interface the system with a satellite modem network already in use.

6 5 Unfortunately, due to passage of time and changes in the electronics market, the central microprocessor within the AFFS system became obsolete. This prevented additional units from being manufactured. Thus, the system requires an upgrade so that new units are available for the JAARS aircraft fleet, and adaptable to the needs of other organizations. As a result of the need, JAARS has allowed Messiah College to work with the AFFS hardware and software under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to develop an upgraded AFFS system that is ready for continued manufacturing. In addition to the upgrade of the obsolete components of the system, JAARS has expressed its openness to developing interfaces with other communication methods, including the Codan radio interface for MAF and the satellite modem interface for UIM. The FTMS team of 2009 and 2010 took on the task of both upgrading the obsolete components of the original AFFS system and investigating an interface with a Stellar ST2500 satellite modem provided by UIM. The team made good progress and developed a prototype of the upgraded AFFS system, including a new microprocessor and progress on the actual port of the original system code. In addition to the prototype, the team also began testing of a loaned satellite modem and determined that the modem functioned properly and may be a viable communication method. Narrative

7 6 The FTMS team of 2010/2011 began project work essentially where the previous team left off. In the fall of 2010, the team focused primarily on developing and investigating the interface with the ST2500 satellite modem provided by UIM. Some testing had been completed, but a more thorough analysis was necessary before development could continue with the modem. The Stellar ST2500 modem is an ORBCOMM low earth orbiting satellite transceiver. The satellite modem sends messages via satellite through the ORBCOMM system, through the internet, and finally to a specified address. Preliminary tests showed that the messaging capabilities worked as described, and the team was able to send messages to specified address. However, the modem required connection with a PC running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as the modem utilized StelComm, a windows application. Additionally, tests showed inconsistent satellite reception and signal strength, which was a concern considering the purpose of flight tracking. Despite these concerns, the team continued to research in order to learn how to interface the modem with the new upgraded microprocessor. Documentation regarding the modem was found, although descriptions and instructions on third party programming were inadequate and confusing. In an attempt to understand the instructions better, the team contacted Stellar directly. From Stellar, the team learned that the ST2500 satellite modem itself was no longer support and had become obsolete. This posed a challenge to the team, as there was next to no support for any sort of third party application programming.

8 7 In a final attempt to determine the programming capabilities of the satellite modem, the team communicated with John Paepcke, a consultant for UIM from Time Critical Decisions. John investigated the ability of third party programming for the modem, but also failed in finding any sort of documentation or support. Because of the difficulties with the ST2500, the team was forced to adjust the goals of the FTMS project until either more support is provided or a more recent modem product could be provided. Beginning in the spring of 2011, the FTMS team redefined the main objective of the project. Instead of attempting to upgrade the AFFS system and interface the system with a satellite communications system, the team decided to focus entirely on only upgrading the AFFS system for manufacturability. In order to finish developing the system, the team identified three sub-objectives: 1) Investigate original hardware composition and functionality in order to ensure emulation of the original system, 2) Continue development on the firmware port for the new system, and 3) Begin developing a testing environment for future testing of the new system. Investigation of the physical composition of the original AFFS system control unit led to the discovery of an intermediate display and interface board. Further investigation showed that the display board serves as an interface for the microprocessor, the Pactor modem, and all other components. While the new microprocessor is physically smaller than the old microprocessor, this was of concern because the new microprocessor contains a different pinlayout than the original. As a result, the team determined that an interface board between the display board and the new microprocessor might be necessary. Furthermore, investigation of

9 8 the functionality of the AFFS control unit showed that previous work done on the firmware did indeed emulate the system. Following investigation of the original AFFS system control unit, the team then moved to developing the firmware of the new system. In accordance with stakeholder desires, the team continued to ensure that strict emulation was followed while coding the new system microprocessor. Work was necessary on the actual user-interface sections of the code, so the team finished that first. Following the user-interface code, the team then moved to porting the Pactor modem interface, beginning with the modem initialization. Finally, after completing the modem initialization, the team then focused on beginning the port of the main modem and GPS functionality. Significant progress was made, especially in the development of the emergency button latch code. However, a large part of the code remains to be ported, and will likely be a focus for future work on the project. For the testing environment, the team began by adding a power switch to the prototype in order to help emulate the original pilot interface. In addition, the team worked with JAARS to obtain a second SCS PTC-IIpro Pactor modem for testing purposes. After speaking with Martin Beels, a previous Messiah Graduate student that had worked with the AFFS system, the team learned that a potential modem-to-modem interface would involve an audio patch cable, entirely removing the initial need for a radio interface. Future testing would indeed require the radio interface to be part of the system, but initial testing with an audio patch cable would allow for faster test results.

10 9 Project Plan In the fall of 2010, the Flight Tracking and Messaging Systems team had planned to integrate a satellite modem with the AFFS 1.0 control unit in order to create SatAFFS. The original plan involved having this system in the testing phase by December of However, during the research phase it was discovered that the satellite modem we were attempting to integrate with the AFFS control unit was not going to be a viable option for a SatAFFS system. Programming of the satellite modem proved to be impractical based on the testing the team did. Further research showed that the modem was no longer supported by the manufacturer and that our contacts who had experience with the modem had never known of an instance where it was programmed for specialized use. In the spring of 2011 revised the schedule and plan to begin work on AFFS 2.0 instead of SatAFFS (i.e. integrating the new microcontroller into the original system with the pactor modem rather than with the satellite modem). Currently the project is in the research phase as the code is being ported from the original microcontroller to the new one and the testing setup is being configured. Work left to be done on the code porting side includes a small amount of porting of the modem code as well as the entirety of the GPS code. On the test setup side the ground station test modem must be successfully connected to a PC and a patch cable must be connected between the ground and cockpit units. When that work is completed the project should be prepared to enter the testing and design phases. The testing phase will involve first testing AFFS 1.0 to analyze its functionality and then connecting the new micro to check that it matches the original functionality. The design phase will consist primarily of creating either an

11 10 adapter to connect the new microcontroller to the AFFS display board or designing another creative and effective way of connecting the two. The current schedule expected the testing phase to start in April 2011 and the design phase to start in September However, the testing phase has now been pushed back to the Fall of 2011 because the code porting and test setup ended up slightly behind schedule. The code porting ended up slightly behind schedule due to the sheer quantity of code needing ported. The job is simply taking longer than we initially anticipated. The test setup is still incomplete because we have, as of yet, been unable to get the ground station modem connected to a PC. This may either be a serial port assignment issue or the modem may not work through a serial-usb converter. Once these two tasks are resolved the next stages of the project can begin. Currently all resource needs for the project are met. We do not anticipate a need for any additional resources in the near future based on current project resources and status. The project resources currently consist of the original AFFS control unit, a stand-alone pactor modem, our updated replacement microcontroller, a breadboard-based prototype, and various cables and serial-to-usb converters. Because all of our resources needs are met now and for the foreseeable future, we have no current financial challenges or expected expenses. The project is well within budget and is expected to remain within budget during the next phases.

12 11 Future Work Project work in the immediate future will involve the testing and design phases as mentioned in the Project Plan section of this report. Once the testing and adapter design phases are complete, the project should be ready for the prototype phase. However, if the adapter is effective, the prototype phase should simply be an AFFS unit with the new microcontroller and no other significant modifications. The immediate overall goal for the future is to get a finished AFFS 2.0 product to JAARS as soon as possible while ensuring all requirements are met. Once the immediate goal is achieved, additional communication interfaces such as the codan radio and satellite modem could be considered for implementation in separate versions of the AFFS system. The exact requirements/specs for these separate systems would need to be discussed with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and United Indian Missions (UIM). Conclusion The Communications Group Flight Tracking and Messaging Systems team seeks to fulfill the need for aircraft tracking in remote locations through the upgrade and expansion of the AFFS unit. The previous project objective of integrating the ST2500 satellite modem with the

13 12 new microcontroller for the AFFS unit could not be completed at the present time. However, since revising our project objective to focus on the upgrade of the AFFS system to AFFS 2.0, we have made great progress and are almost ready to begin the final stages of this portion of the project. Once all of the microcontroller code is ported and the test setup is ready, we will be ready to finalize the design of the upgraded system. Although things didn t always go smoothly for the FTMS team this year, we ve made some great strides toward a finished product. There is no doubt that we will see an operational upgraded AFFS unit in the near future.