AFRL-Funded Researchers Develop New Software Model to Improve Aircraft Mission Control Systems Published Nov. 8, 2007 By Air Force Office of Scientific Research AFOSR ARLINGTON, Va. -- AFRL-funded researchers from Kansas State University (KSU) developed a new software model that could potentially reduce software development time and costs while improving aircraft mission control systems. The model is called Cadena, and the work is happening at KSU's Laboratory for Specification, Analysis, and Transformation of Software, a facility also known as SAnToS. SAnToS aids the invention of tools that help people construct and develop, in a systematic and rapid way, reliable software that conforms to its specification. The KSU research involves the combination of software models to drive development of component-based systems and lightweight domain-specific specification and verification technology. Highly reliable, distributed, real-time, and embedded computer systems are needed to support the operational platforms required for achieving Department of Defense objectives of network-centric collaboration and information supremacy. By emphasizing use of reusable components, the Cadena model reduces development, production time, and overall costs. It also helps ensure that design and integration errors are caught early in the development process. Defense industry engineers used the SAnToS Cadena model to develop the avionics environment employed for the software flown on the Scan Eagle unmanned air vehicle platform at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The engineers used Cadena software for the Scan Eagle platform because it enabled rapid assembly of reusable components having a high degree of automation and greater capability with respect to providing streaming video to the command site. Cadena's success has attracted the attention of major private-sector research companies, one of which is now working with and providing additional support to the Cadena research team.