Flight Safety System (FSS) for Aircraft Automation

Authors: Mihai-Alexandru Georgescu, Emile Marchandise, Anastasia Soulele
May 2024

Project Overview

The Flight Safety System (FSS) is an advanced embedded system project aimed at increasing aircraft safety through automation. Designed and developed in a collaborative team of 3 international students, this project leverages cutting-edge sensors and control mechanisms to enhance flight safety by automating critical maneuvers during flight.

Key Features

• Dynamic Flight Controls: Automates pitch and roll based on joystick input with specific thresholds to prevent excessive maneuvers.
• Safety Protocols: Maintains horizontal flight under critical conditions and implements automated responses to altitude extremes.
• Obstacle Avoidance: Integrates infrared sensors to detect obstacles and automatically adjusts the aircraft's trajectory under poor visibility conditions.
• Engine Control Management: Adjusts engine power in response to changes in pitch and roll, enhancing the responsiveness and safety of the aircraft.

Technical Highlights

• Embedded Systems Design: Utilizes a Raspberry Pi pre-equipped with multiple sensors to simulate real-time aircraft control.
• Concurrency and Synchronization: Implements threads synchronized with semaphores in C language to ensure mutual exclusion and maintain system stability.
• Software Engineering Practices: Adheres to the DO-178 standard, structuring and documenting the development process through comprehensive UML diagrams:
  • Requirements Diagram
  • Use Case Diagram
  • Block Diagram
  • Activity Diagram
  • Sequence Diagram
  • State Machine Diagram
• Real-Time Data Processing: Manages real-time data from control inputs and sensors to dynamically adjust aircraft behavior.

Repository Contents

• Enterprise Architect Project: All UML diagrams visualizing the system architecture and behavior.
• Source Code Archive: Complete source code managing the Raspberry Pi and sensor integration, demonstrating practical application of thread synchronization and real-time control.

Program Setup and Execution Instructions

Overview

This section provides the necessary commands to compile and run the program.

Compilation

To compile the program, use the following command:

make c

Running the Program

After compilation, execute the program with superuser privileges:

sudo ./MainControl