The OCP - an open middleware solution for embedded systems

The Open Control Platform (OCP) is an important software technology component of the Software-Enabled Control (SEC) research program being funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal of SEC is to develop new controls and software technology that will enable new control applications that are impractical or intractable using current approaches. The OCP provides an open, middleware-enabled software framework and development platform for control technology researchers who want to demonstrate their technology in simulated or actual embedded system platforms. The embedded system domain of particular interest to the SEC program is that of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs). This paper describes the OCP approach to handling the challenges of UAV control, including support for all levels of vehicle control (including low-level flight control), interaction between a UAV and other platforms (e.g. another UAV, ground station, control by a piloted aircraft), innovative scheduling techniques, adaptive resource management and support for dynamic reconfiguration. The OCP is being developed by the Embedded Systems Research Team within the Boeing Phantom Works Open Systems organization. Assisting Boeing in these efforts are the Georgia Institute of Technology, Honeywell Labs and the University of California at Berkeley. The OCP is being delivered to a host of university and industrial researchers who are participating in the SEC program.