ENGINEERING AND SOFTWARE CAPABILITIES
--- Quick Links ---
Electronic Ground Support Equipment Software
ATA has successfully designed, developed and delivered flight software for space launch vehicles and upper stages. The software included: guidance, navigation, thrust vector control, attitude control systems command, telemetry down list and modification of the flight computer operating systems. Top
Test Software
ATA was responsible for the design and development of test software, which was successfully utilized on the Asas Technology Evaluation Demonstration (ATED) vehicle on the 29th of June 2005. Two test programs were built. One set of test software was utilized during the qualification of the flight computer. A second set of test software was used during avionics systems test at the launch facility. Top
Electronic Ground Support Equipment Software
ATA successfully designed, developed and delivered Electronic Ground Support Equipment Software. This software was used to configure the ATED experiment and perform preflight countdown functions. Top
Simulation Software
ATA has developed and continues to develop simulation software for multiple applications in the aerospace environment. ATA has developed six degree of freedom models for launch vehicles, upper stages and the Crew Exploration Vehicle. ATA has also developed complex propulsion control systems models along with the necessary support software. Top
Software Development Laboratory
A Software Development Laboratory has been designed, developed and built by ATA, and was utilized in the development of the aforementioned software products. The lab boasts an extensive set of tools including Matlab, Simulink, LabVIEW with Real-Time, IDL, Fortran and C. With these tools ATA can design and build a wide array of solutions to meet just about any client's challenge.
Additionally, with the Software Development Laboratory, ATA has developed the support software necessary to demonstrate avionics hardware in the loop testing. The lab also includes six degree of freedom-real-time flight simulations capable of being used to demonstrate a family of launch vehicles with variable flight conditions. ATA's laboratory utilizes National Instrument hardware and LabVIEW software. ATA has certified LabVIEW developers. Top
Systems Engineering
ATA has performed System Engineering under contract to major aerospace companies and government agencies. System engineering functions including: Design Concepts, System Optimization, Systems Integration, Independent Assessments, Independent Verification and Validation, Flight and Test Readiness Reviews, Cost Analysis (including should cost and life cycle cost.) ATA has developed databases under contract for systems such as: avionics, attitude control, telemetry, propulsion, thermal management and power. System support functions such as thermal, reliability, failure and operability analyses are among the capabilities of the ATA staff. The ATA staff can complete any function in the customers System Engineering Handbook.
In addition, ATA has performed system design and operations concept studies including the following:
-
Orbital Maneuvering and Servicing Vehicle concept and program design
-
Space Transfer Vehicle system concept design
-
Launch Vehicle design, build, test and launch concept of operations
-
Satellite Avionics system design concept for launch from the Space Shuttle
-
Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Avionics design concept
-
Design and costing study for an in-space refueling station at the LI point
-
Crew Exploration Vehicle Launch Abort and Landing Impact Attenuation System Human rated Avionics system concept. Top
Control Systems
ATA has utilized its expertise in controls engineering, as well as its suite of tools (Matlab/SIMULINK) for characterizing control systems. This approach rapidly reduces development time. Using industry standard control laws such as full-state feedback and powerful representations such as state-space, facilitates a wide range of analytical tools. ATA can determine control law coefficients based on the desired closed-loop response, such as natural frequency and damping, using pole-placement techniques to remove the need for “black magic” tweaking. ATA's engineering techniques integrate heuristic algorithms based on high-level priorities to handle non-linearity's of the system such as saturations.
For non-linear plant dynamics, we have experience in designing non-linear controllers, which linearize the overall closed-loop response of the system. ATA has designed controllers in both continuous-time and discrete-time domains, and are not dependent on solvers for the coefficients of real-time controllers.
Our work includes general discrete-time solutions of second-order systems capable of doing real-time plant simulation for hardware-in-the-loop testing. Our controllers have been extensively tested for robust operation by means of plant parameter variations. Our experience includes 6DOF control of a vehicle hop mission, optimal control of a retro-braking mission, and non-linear control of solid propellant combustion. Top