ÅAC Plug-and-Play (PnP) Products Overview

ÅAC is introducing a range of products suitable for PnP applications. An overview is given here while detailed information can be found on ÅAC main site.

Article table of contents

PnP domain explanation
ÅAC RTU family
ÅAC Power, GNC, and Memory modules
ÅAC Virtual Satellite Integration

PnP domain explanation

ÅAC have developed a family of Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) or US Applique Sensor Network Interface (ASIM) adapted for different speed and function. The following illustration shows where each RTU/ASIM belongs.

pnp_domain

All units can be used either with the Space Plug-and-Play avionics (SPA) protocol or with any custom protocol that the user may want to use.

ÅAC RTU family

A summary of the ÅAC RTU/ASIM family is given here. All software needed for ÅAC's interfaces are based on Open Source and are the same, regardless of version used. I.e., you don't need to buy extra software or specially compiled version for the fault tolerant versions. The fault tolerant hardware is completely transperant for the software. The use of Open Source minimizes your costs and providing a well maintained infrastructure. See the RTU/OBC product matrix below for detailed information.

ac rtu interfaces

The ÅAC RTU family are available as either Engineering Model (non-mission critical), Flight Model (mission critical) or Prototype/Development Board.

**Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) product matrix. Click on links for product details.**
RTU/OBC 800 series	812 Flight model (FM), 20 kRAD ,SEE fault tolerant 811 Engineering model (EM), FM form fit function 810 Prototype board (PB)
RTU/OBC "Lite" 500 series	512 Flight model (FM), 20 kRAD ,SEE fault tolerant 511 Engineering model (EM), FM form fit function 510 Prototype board (PB)
µRTU 300 series	312 Flight model (FM), 20 kRAD ,SEE fault tolerant 311 Engineering model (EM), FM form fit function 310 Prototype board (PB)
nanoRTU 200 series	212 Flight model (FM), 20 kRAD ,SEE fault tolerant 211 Engineering model (EM), FM form fit function

ÅAC Power, GNC, and Memory modules

ÅAC has created a family of distributed power control units (DPCU) for SpaceWire, USB, and I2C which allows you to easily distribute data network and power throughout your system with built in latch-up (LCL) (short circuit) control. A small guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) module consisting of a inertial measurement unit, a magnetometer, and a Kalman filter is also available with SpaceWire, USB, or I2C interface. In addition, a fault-tolerant non-volatile mass memory of 16 GByte is available for storage with SpaceWire, USB, or I2C interface.

Power_GNC_MM

ÅAC Virtual Satellite Integration

One very important piece of hardware and software that enables the Plug-and-Play concept is the use of Virtual Integration Tools which allows the user to distribute subsystems and main onboard computers over the world and perform assembly, integration, and test (AIT) through internet or intranet. ÅAC has developed "SPISE" with two configurations, one with SpaceWire, CAN, RS232, RS485 interfaces, and one compatible with SPA-S (SpaceWire), SPA-U (USB 1.1), and SPA-1 (I2C) with extra RS422 and RS232.

This allows the system builder to cut upto 80% of the classical man hours involved in system integration.

vsi