A Highly Modular Software Framework for Reducing Software Development Time of Nanosatellites
Autor: | Mohammed I. Awad, Prashanth Reddy Marpu, Aisha El Allam, Abdul-Halim Jallad, Maen Takruri |
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Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
software architecture
General Computer Science business.industry Computer science CubeSat General Engineering Software development flight software computer.software_genre Modularity nanosatellites Software quality TK1-9971 Software framework Software portability Software Systems engineering General Materials Science Electrical engineering. Electronics. Nuclear engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Software architecture business computer Agile software development |
Zdroj: | IEEE Access, Vol 9, Pp 107791-107803 (2021) |
ISSN: | 2169-3536 |
DOI: | 10.1109/access.2021.3097537 |
Popis: | The standardization of the physical aspects of nanosatellites (also known as CubeSats) and their wide adoption in academia and industry has made the mass production and availability of off-the-shelf components possible. While this has led to a significant reduction in satellite development time, the fact remains that a considerable amount of mission development time and effort continues to be spent on flight software development. The CubeSat’s agile development environment makes it challenging to utilize the advantages of existing software frameworks. Such an adoption is not straightforward due to the added complexity characterized by a steep learning curve. A well-designed flight software architecture mitigates possible sources of failure and increases mission success rate while maintaining moderate complexity. This paper presents a novel approach to a flight software framework developed specifically for nanosatellites. The software framework is characterized by simplicity, reliability, modularity, portability, and real-time capability. The main features of the proposed framework include providing a standardized and explicit skeleton for each module to simplify their construction, offering standardized interfaces for all modules to simplify communication, and providing a collection of ready-to-use common services open for further enhancement by CubeSat software developers. The framework efficiency was demonstrated through a software developed for the MeznSat mission that was successfully launched into Low Earth Orbit in September 2020. The proposed software framework proved to simplify software development for the application developer while significantly enhancing software modularity. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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