Scarlett project
Background and project summary
Barco is participating in a large, pan-European project regarding the Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) of the future. This project is carried out by 40 of the main aeronautics players, including companies (EADS, Airbus, GE, Thales, etc) and research institutes in Europe. It is also funded by the European Commission within their Seventh Framework Program (EC FP7).
The first generation of Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA1G) has been introduced through older European funded research projects (Barco was not a partner in these). It has led the aerospace industry to take a revolutionary step away from the previous federated architectures and their classical bespoke electronics. IMA1G, currently onboard the A380, A400M and other modern aircrafts, replaces separate and dissimilar equipments, with fewer common processing modules, sharing the necessary power supply and communication links.
IMA1G, currently onboard the A380, A400M and other modern aircrafts, replaces separate and dissimilar equipments, with fewer common processing modules, sharing the necessary power supply and communication links.
IMA1G is a first step in the evolution toward a full IMA concept, which demonstrates its possible implementation and benefits when applied to a limited range of aircraft functions. The number of processing units in the new A380 is half that of previous generations. Reductions in airline operating costs are expected to be between 15 to 20% through significant weight reduction and maintenance savings.
The concept of the SCARLETT project is based on a shared analysis made by the European Aerospace Community which supports the need to carry out research leading to a conceptual breakthrough in IMA1G in order to define a scalable, reconfigurable fault-tolerant driven and secure new avionics platform, namely DME: Distributed Modular Electronics.
In implementing the innovations in the DME concept, SCARLETT will progress the state-of-the-art beyond the current IMA1G in the following areas:
- Scalability, portability and adaptability
- Fault tolerance and reconfiguration capabilities
- A minimum number of types of standardized electronic modules
- Support for the full range of avionics function
These innovations will be supported by advanced processes, methods and tools for an efficient implementation in the future.
By progressing as described above the European Industry will be in a position to offer a common avionics platform solution across a worldwide range of aircraft types, at a higher level of maturity at entry into service.
Project website
The project has launched a public website: http://www.scarlettproject.eu were al public information of the project is available.
Scarlett project has been produced with funding received from the European Community`s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement nº ACP7-GA-2008-211439.
