DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE FOR A SELF-DESCRIBING DATA SYSTEM

Abstract

Flight Test data systems have in the past been setup by experts using ground based computer systems. In the future it will be possible to give the system a list of parameters to be measured on a given test and have the data acquisition system return the information necessary to process the data. There are several things that are leading systems in this direction. Recorders are beginning to record Meta data along with the data on the same media. IRIG 106 Chapter 10 recorder specification requires that a TMATS file be stored on the media with the data so that the data can be processed by any system. The TMATS file is Meta data. However, the TMATS file still needs to be generated by conventional means. Another factor leading us in this direction is the advent of network based data acquisition systems. This will allow much simpler algorithms to be used to format the data and remove some of the reliance on experts to accomplish this task. What this paper discusses is preliminary work toward using an XML based approach to having the system generate the setup information. The result will be an XML Schema. This can then be used by microprocessors in the data acquisition system to create a record for each measurement that can then be used to process the data.