Blue Origin - New Glenn Rocket - Automated Flight Safety System
In summary, the AFSS is an Automated Flight Safety System that the United State Air Force is requiring on all newly designed space rockets. The AFSS is responsible for monitoring the rockets subsystems and flight path. If the AFSS determines that a critical failure has occurred in either a subsystem or the rocket is traveling outside the programmed flight path, it will self-destruct the rocket.
|
For more information about AFSS that is publicly available, I recommend the following link to a published Air Force Article https://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1145696/30th-safety-personnel-prove-integral-to-automated-systems-integration/. More information can be found in other articles as well. In case the AFSS article link was removed, a downloadable copy is available at the end of this page.
My involvement in the AFSS brought me a new type of engineering experience. I assumed the role and responsibilities of a Test Equipment Engineer in developing a python testing environment for a Hardware In The Loop (HIL) Test-Stand.
My Experience: (September 2019 - January 2020)
Blue Origin - New Glenn Rocket - Automated Flight Safety System (AFSS):
My involvement in the AFSS brought me a new type of engineering experience. I assumed the role and responsibilities of a Test Equipment Engineer in developing a python testing environment for a Hardware In The Loop (HIL) Test-Stand.
My Experience: (September 2019 - January 2020)
Blue Origin - New Glenn Rocket - Automated Flight Safety System (AFSS):
- Role: Lead Software Development and Integration Engineer. Included frequent travel to Seattle, WA. 6 months
- Developed a testing environment software that allows testers to create and execute various types of test scripts.
- Collaborated with the AFSS team to determine their testing needs that were required from the testing environment.
- Developed the testing environment interface to connect to and operate on the various peripherals:
- TDK-Lambda Genesys DC Power Supply (Gen 40-19) using IEEE 488.2 SCPI Communication Protocol pyVisa.
- National Instrument Multi-function Analog/Digital I/O (and more) PCIe-6323 using NI-DAQmx.
- National Instrument Temperature Input Module NI-9210 using NI-DAQmx.
- Connect Tech Serial Communication Card BEG006 using pySerial.
- Ethernet Communication to and from the unit under test.
- Utilized Python object-oriented programming to implement the various low-level device drivers I/O Interfaces.
- Utilized Python multi-threading and event-scheduling techniques to operate the different peripherals simultaneously.
- Implemented various readable csv files to drive multiple Test-Stand I/O configurations and Serial/Ethernet transmissions for closed loop simulation.
- Troubleshooted integration issues related to the hardware wiring, hardware timing, and DC Power Supply performance.
- Performed extensive testing to evaluate and document hardware performance and reliability.
Pictures of the various peripherals utilized:
Note: If pictures are not appearing, switch to web/desktop viewing mode.
Note: If pictures are not appearing, switch to web/desktop viewing mode.
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/pdf.png)
us_airfoce_afss_article_04072017.pdf |