Development and Performance Analysis of on-Board Computer Software for Real Time Auto-Pilot Control System

Abstract: On board computer (OBC) is an essential component of any On-Board Control
System that involves several tasks that needs to be executed in precise order and for accurate
periods of time. Most of the real time control systems require instantaneous execution of
commands either through hardware or software. To ensure that these requirements are
fulfilled, it is necessary to measure not only the execution time of individual tasks, but also
establish the overall real time performance of the system as well. These measurements may
then be used as a basis for accurate real time scheduling analysis and to identify timing
problems or to spot which code segment needs to be optimized. The most common reasons
for measuring execution times are to refine, estimates, optimize code, analyze real time
performance, and to debug timing errors. Oscilloscope is one of the best tools for accurately
measuring execution time with nano-second's result, especially when accurate timing is
critical. This method requires extra hardware features, Oscilloscope analysis features, and
additional software code segments. Depending on the real time operating system (RTOS) and
hardware, it is possible that code is not executing at the proper rate or during the right period
as specified by the designer. These drawbacks may result due to limitations in the operating
system, the application software or the hardware used. This proposal presents hyper threads, a
unifying programming model for specifying application threads running within a hybrid
CPU/FPGA system that is used to control the real time operation of an auto-pilot control
system.