Designing Optimized Software Stacks for Autonomous Systems in Aerospace and Defense

An electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle delivers packages in a crowded city. Elsewhere, two autonomous aircraft are looking to land at the same congested airport. What do these scenarios have in common? One point of commonality is the reliance on software stacks, such as guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, and flight control. Of course, these are just some of the many mission- and safety-critical software systems that are powering autonomous technology in aerospace and defense (A&D). An autonomous system’s ability to make decisions, execute those decisions, and communicate between different software systems are all needed to ensure that autonomous systems can accomplish their missions.

As autonomous systems percolate through the A&D industry with ever-increasing complexity, the software they use to function must match the current pace of innovation. Achieving this goal will require optimizing the software stacks and fully integrating them into internal and external systems.

Download the e-book for an overview of the software stacks powering autonomous technology in the A&D industry today and how engineers are overcoming key challenges to usher in the next generation of autonomous software.