DEFINING AN OPEN FLIGHT DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

Abstract

As today’s flight test data acquisition systems grow more complex, there is an urgent need for open standards that allow Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) equipment from different vendors to be used together. However, there is more to inter-operability than getting the wiring right – it flows through from requirements specification to the gathering of data. This paper discusses the characteristics of an open system at each interface between customer requirements and programming of the Data Acquisition Unit (DAU): • Industry standard specifications for data interchange with databases and software packages • Human readable file formats for Data Acquisition Unit (DAU) setup • Communications link from ground station equipment to DAU • Industry standard protocols for interconnection of DAUs • Intra-DAU backplane specification to allow custom acquisition functionality to be added Only by providing third-party entry points at all five layers can the goal of an open data acquisition system be achieved.