Case Study: Alenia Aermacchi achieves DO-178B Level A autopilot certification and 20% faster time-to-flight with MathWorks Model-Based Design

Alenia Aermacchi Develops Autopilot Software for DO-178B Level A Certification

Alenia Aermacchi needed to develop the M-346’s first DO-178B Level A certified autopilot while iterating quickly with test pilots and producing the artifacts required for certification. To meet this challenge the company adopted MathWorks’ Model-Based Design approach using Simulink and Stateflow along with Simulink Coverage, Simulink Requirements, Embedded Coder, Polyspace and related MathWorks products to support modeling, requirements traceability, simulation, code generation, and certification reporting.

MathWorks’ toolchain enabled Alenia Aermacchi to build executable system and software models, generate about 17,000 lines of C code, perform model and code coverage analysis, and produce certification artifacts; the M-346 autopilot achieved DO-178B Level A and type certification from the Italian Ministry of Defence. By using MathWorks tools, requirements review time was reduced by up to 30%, time-to-flight fell by about 20%, and many low-level certification activities (requirements coverage analysis, run-time error checking, standards compliance) were automated.

Alenia Aermacchi

Massimiliano Campagnoli

FCS Application Software Team Leader