Bottom-line on top: On April 13, 2010 Joel Henry from Draper Laboratory, NASA/Johnson Space Center, will present A Model-Based Design and Testing Approach for Orion GN&C Flight Software Development during the MathWorks Symposium in Waltham, MA. This is a unique opportunity to meet one of the authors of the NASA Orion GN&C Modeling Standards.

Modeling Standards

When you build a Simulink model, do you think about modeling standards? Most production Model-Based Design projects use modeling standards to ensure consistency in their models and components. These standards dictate specific modeling patterns that are recommended and contribute to well-organized components, better readability, and better generated code.

MAAB

For a long time, if someone mentioned modeling standards, I would immediately think of the MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board (MAAB) Control Algorithms Modeling Guidelines. Those modeling standards are significant because they were a public set of standards that everyone could learn from and discus. The MAAB Guidelines provided the basis for many company proprietary standards.

New from NASA

I was excited to learn that there is now a publicly available standard from the arerospace industry, the NASA - Orion GN&C: MATLAB and Simulink Standards.

The Orion Guidance, Navigation, and Control MATLAB and Simulink Standards document describes the modeling standards and guidelines that the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Flight Dynamics Team (FDT) are using while developing and coding the GN&C algorithms using Simulink, Stateflow, the Embedded MATLAB subset of the MATLAB language, and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder.

A few sections caught my eye. Specifically:

• Model Architecture
  • Simulink, Embedded MATLAB, and Stateflow Partitioning
  • Subsystem Hierarchies
  • Model Architecture Decomposition
• Embedded MATLAB

Meet the Author!

On April 13, 2010, there is a MathWorks Symposium on Adopting Model-Based Design in Aerospace and Defense in Waltham, MA. Joel Henry from Draper Laboratory, NASA/Johnson Space Center, will present A Model-Based Design and Testing Approach for Orion GN&C Flight Software Development. If you are interested in the NASA Orion GN&C Standards, this is a unique opportunity to meet one of the authors.

What is your standard?

Do you have feedback about the NASA GN&C Modeling Standards? Leave a comment here.