Linux on Missiles?
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RedHawk Linux[^] selected for Lockheed Martin for missile testing X|
Make sure you emphasize "Testing". Linux is not being used as part of the missile guidance system itself; a true real-time operating system will be used there. Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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Make sure you emphasize "Testing". Linux is not being used as part of the missile guidance system itself; a true real-time operating system will be used there. Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
Joe Woodbury wrote:
Make sure you emphasize "Testing". Linux is not being used as part of the missile guidance system itself; a true real-time operating system will be used there.
Actually, both have to be real-time. Red-Hawk Linux does claim real-time kernal capability, but it will supply the environment for HIL testing (according to the article), meaning it will play the "entire world" while the missile just has to play "itself." HIL testing is nothing to sneeze at, it is perhaps one of the most complicated and most real-time required operations there is in the testing community. I would suggest a good google on the subject. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Trollslayer wrote:
Well, at least once
This is THAAD we're talking about.... Though hopefully they have fixed their seeker problem, THAAD missed 9 out of 10 times. ;P Maybe that is why they are changing the OS.... They were getting BSOD.... _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Trollslayer wrote:
Well, at least once
This is THAAD we're talking about.... Though hopefully they have fixed their seeker problem, THAAD missed 9 out of 10 times. ;P Maybe that is why they are changing the OS.... They were getting BSOD.... _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Roger Wright wrote:
you don't want a buggy, pre-emptive multi-tasking operating system running the show.
Er, isn't Linux a pre-emptive multitasking operating system (with bugs)? It certainly isn't a rate monotonic real time operating system. I believe they were using for simulation, not flight control. More suitable OSS for that kind of thing would probably be RTEMS[^]. Worked on an "electronic nose" system based on it a fair few years ago. (Grandmother, suck eggs, but coudln't resist) Ryan
O fools, awake! The rites you sacred hold Are but a cheat contrived by men of old, Who lusted after wealth and gained their lust And died in baseness—and their law is dust. al-Ma'arri (973-1057)
Any single-tasking RTOS would be more reliable, probably, but if I'm not mistaken you can fairly easily set execution priorities in Linux that are much harder to enforce in Windows. I'm sure there are better choices out there, but for the price, Linux seems to be a good selection over Windows. BTW - If Grandpa could still deliver, Grandmother wouldn't need eggs...;) "...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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Joe Woodbury wrote:
Make sure you emphasize "Testing". Linux is not being used as part of the missile guidance system itself; a true real-time operating system will be used there.
Actually, both have to be real-time. Red-Hawk Linux does claim real-time kernal capability, but it will supply the environment for HIL testing (according to the article), meaning it will play the "entire world" while the missile just has to play "itself." HIL testing is nothing to sneeze at, it is perhaps one of the most complicated and most real-time required operations there is in the testing community. I would suggest a good google on the subject. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
HIL testing is nothing to sneeze at
How well I know! I'm not sure what the acronym stands for, but the meaning is clear from context. I used to call it KUS - "Known Universe Simulation" - when I was designing test systems for guided missiles. The DoD doesn't trust new-fangled techniques like in-circuit component testing (new, as in 20 years old), and wants the ATE to simulate the environment surrounding the UUT in real time. I maintain, and research supports me, that if a circuit is designed correctly and assembled correctly using good parts, it will work exactly as designed. If it doesn't, the design is flawed. But at whatever level of integration I was asked to test, I had to design and build hardware that exactly duplicated the electrical environment of the next assembly level, and program it to emulate every possible response. Even after proving that in-circuit tests actually were better than the KUS approach, catching more errors than the traditional method, catching flaws at lower levels of assembly, I was still required to build and program equipment to simulate the known universe for final sell-off. That requirement turns a $200,000 piece of ATE into a $5 million hardware. DoD is a dinosaur... "...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9