Interface and Control Systems (ICS) has been developing a concept which will result in a standard control system used for embedded systems, spacecraft controllers, ground stations, and test equipment. This intelligent control system is centered around Artificial Intelligence technology, namely Expert System technologies. The concept which we have been promoting is the unification of ground and space with a common control system. A portable control system has been developed which promotes a standard interface for ground and space applications. The potential for cost savings with a system such as this can only be realized if the concept is followed throughout the entire life cycle of a program. The standard control system can be used for a wide variety of applications such as: embedded test equipment, data reduction systems, data analysis and diagnostic workstations, special test fixtures, embedded system controllers, subsystem controllers, avionics units, etc.

Portable Control Systems

Interface and Control Systems has been engaged in the development of a portable Smart Control System and a development environment used to support the generation of Spacecraft Command Language (SCL) applications. The SCL system integrates Expert System technology with procedural programming. The SCL Inference Engine and Command Interpreter are integrated with a real-time multi-tasking scheme. This allows the interleaving of procedural scripts (temporal reasoning) with expert system rules (event driven). This system is targeted to run on embedded systems in a wide variety of environments. The initial development will be targeted for use on-board a satellite as the spacecraft controller. The Real-Time Engine (RTE) represents the embedded portion of the system. The RTE has been designed to be portable so that it may be used on a wide variety of workstations, mini-computers, and personal computers. The development environment has been designed around an open systems architecture allowing the system to be portable to popular workstations and personal computers.

Reusable - Generic Control Systems

The SCL system has wide applicability to control system applications. The system is not limited to spacecraft systems. ICS has undertaken contracts which use SCL for industrial control applications. Because the SCL knowledge base and database can be downloaded to remote versions of SCL, generic hardware controllers can be re-used throughout a program. The SCL system supports multiple communications protocols, and can be used in distributed environments with communications between multiple versions of SCL. This allows SCL to be used in parallel computing environments as well.

Turn-Key Systems, Simulators, 3rd party Products

The SCL system can be used to provide a "turn-key" solution for many applications. The system can be used as the primary command & control language and provide telemetry decommutation, recording and playback. The event-driven nature of SCL system makes it well suited for development of simulations. The high-level SCL grammar promotes greater productivity and allows for rapid prototyping of systems. Most command and control environments are using graphical user interfaces for visualization of data. The SCL system has been used to drive third party graphics products to provide real-time data visualization, as well as point-and-click commanding. SCL can run in a stand-alone environment, or it can be used as a value-added feature for existing systems.

Find out more details about the SCL System.

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