EUROCONTROL Consolidated HMI for Operations, Evaluations
& Simulations (ECHOES)
The ECHOES Activity
Have you ever needed:
-
to keep a Human Machine Interaction (HMI)
application and its corresponding documentation up to date?
-
to produce an (HMI) specification which can
firstly be reviewed by end users (who naturally think in terms of tasks and
functions) and then be used effectively for development by software engineers
(who think in terms of software architectures, applications libraries, etc.)?
-
to find one particular piece of information
in an HMI specification?
-
to systematically keep track of testing on a
complex HMI development and ensure that it does exactly what it needs to in a
usable manner?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you may
well be interested by ECHOES.
You will certainly be able to judge its potential usefulness.
In fact, ECHOES addresses all of the above issues. It uses innovative tools and methods,
originally developed in the DAS/HUM CoRe Project and
described in the EEC Newsletter
March 2003. It employs these to help
the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre meet the challenges of supporting R&D for
EATMP programmes such as CASCADE and coordinated European study projects, such
as, GATE-TO-GATE and C-ATM, by providing a thoroughly documented, traceable
development process for Controller Working Position (CWP) interaction software.
Over the last 10 years, in cooperation with its sponsors,
the Experimental Centre has developed and implemented a wide range of HMI
functionalities in support of studies and simulations on evolving ATM Functions
such as:
-
ATM Safety Nets,
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Medium Term Conflict Detection
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Deviation Monitoring
-
System Supported Coordination
-
Air/Ground Datalink
-
Arrival Management
-
Airborne Separation Assurance.
What ECHOES is doing NOW!
Currently, ECHOES is engaged in two main activities. Firstly, reverse engineering these existing
implementations to consolidate, integrate and document requirements and possible HMI
solutions for a spectrum of CWP functions.
Secondly, these functions are being
redeveloped, implemented and systematically tested, using a traceable
development process. This will ensure
that they are available on ACE, the next generation of EUROCONTROL’s simulation
capability.
This ‘clean’ development will allow these
functions to be used, and extended in an effective and principled way
(conforming to best practice in HMI definition and development), to meet the
needs of different study projects and programmes.
The quality of the functional specification
and software documentation will also facilitate management of the HMI part of
the EEC’s current initiative to outsource all ERIS software development.
What does ECHOES provide in practical terms?
For the individual study, it furnishes:
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A modular and extensible selection of ATM functions.
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The ability to simultaneously view a development from
an operational or a technical point of view.
-
Direct parameterisation of HMI for a number of the
commonest presentation and interaction options (e.g. radar label configuration,
presentation and interaction).
-
Bi-directional traceability between requirements and
implementation allowing both effective, requirements-based testing and revision
of requirements as a result of study outcomes.
-
Coherent and up-to-date documentation and
implementation.
For the long-term
R&D process:
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More effective re-use of requirements, design
solutions and software.
-
Incremental continuity, building from one study to the
next within a single traceable structure.
-
Management of models tailored to different projects
& programmes
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A means of de-coupling design from a specific
implementation or a specific platform.
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‘Industrial strength’ documentation making eventual
transfer of R&D products for industrialisation a little easier.
How does ECHOES achieve this?
By exploiting practices developed in the CoRe Project. These apply
methods and tools already familiar to industry (such as Unified Modeling
Language) in novel ways. The current
approach is based on a constellation of three models federated using a
commercial case tool, and incorporating, UML, descriptive text and images. Specific information is defined in uniquely
in a single location and referenced globally.
The FUNCTIONAL Model describes the application from the USE point of
view (in terms of requirements, objects to be manipulated and the necessary
procedures and dialogues).
The COMPONENT Model describes the REALISATION of the application (in
terms of use cases, system architecture, object libraries and code
modules). Only the lower layers of this
description are hardware specific.
The GLUE Model provides a systematic linkage between ‘specification’ and
‘build’. It maps between the procedures
of the Functional Model and the Use Cases of the Component Model. Since it has
access to all the ‘once only’ defined information in the other two models it
also manages Test (Plans & Outcomes), Anomaly Reporting and Document Generation
functions, using a specially developed software suite, NTOOLS.
The models are maintained in XML and the whole system employs commercial
version management.
NTOOLS generates
documents to target templates in a range of formats which include MS Word, HTML
and Win Help. Win Help is particularly well adapted to the provision of
searchable, compact, hypertext specifications which can run easily on any PC
platform.
Contact
Information
The ECHOES Project is
distributed between the Simulation Facilities Management (SFM) Centre of
Expertise and the ERIS Work programme of the EUROCONTROL Experimental
Centre. Work over the last two years has
also been sponsored by projects within the Sector Safety and Performance
Business area. NTOOLS was developed
under the supervision of the EEC Software Engineering Unit (SEU).
For further ECHOES information,
please contact:
ECHOES Project Manager: Alistair
Jackson
Tel: +33 (0) 1 69.88.75.44
Fax: +33 (0) 1
69.88.73.33
email: alistair.jackson@eurocontrol.int
ECHOES Project
Leader: Michel
Geissel
Tel: +33 (0) 1 69.88.73.20
Fax: +33 (0) 1 69.88.73.33
email: michel.geissel@eurocontrol.int
For further NTOOLS information,
please contact:
Head of SEU: Rodolphe Salomon
Tel: +33 (0) 1 69.88.70.44
Fax: +33 (0) 1
69.88.72.27
email: rodolphe.salomon@eurocontrol.int