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Over the last several years, Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulators have become the de-facto standard for aerospace control systems verification and validation. The primary purpose of these HIL systems is to allow rapid development of Electronic Control Unit (ECU) software and simultaneous controls engineering while the target plant platforms are concurrently being implemented. dSPACE HIL simulators are based on proven Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software tools for real-time that allow for a very flexible and intuitive implementation process. Many of the development and testing issues with aerospace ECUs can now be handled readily with accessible tools. An overview of HIL simulator components, available tools and technologies, and some of the associated implementation benefits will be shown in this paper.

The single-point electronic accelerometer has been developed to overcome the limitations and cost of current multiple mechanical sensor systems for crash detection and airbag deployment. An electronic sensor yields a signal which is capable of being processed digitally, thereby allowing more advanced algorithms for crash detection. Previous methods of detection have included velocity level detection and energy level detection. These methods exhibited serious limitations for certain types of crashes and potential inadvertent deployment problems. A new system, the Power-Rate method, has been developed to overcome the limitations of prior methods. The Power-Rate method is based on the first derivative of power. It uses measures of acceleration, velocity, and jerk to determine whether the level of crash intensiity is potentially great enough to necessitate airbag deployment. The system has an inherent predictive capability, which yields earlier fire times for problem crash types.