RTI Real-Time Middleware Provides Greater Reliability, Flexibility for Distributed UAV Designs

Technology Currently Adopted by Insitu and General Atomics

SAN JOSE, CA–May 27, 2008–Real-Time Innovations (RTI), The Real-Time Middleware Experts, today summarized its success in providing real-time messaging and data distribution technology to unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs). RTI also emphasized its commitment to future UAV design and development advancements. The use of RTI middleware can make UAVs more reliable and increase flexibility as mission parameters change and evolve.

RTI middleware, which complies with the Object Management Group (OMG) Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS) standard, has been adopted by several leading developers of UAV systems. Insitu Inc. is using RTI software in multiple portions of platforms, such as on UAV airframes, in ground control stations (GCSs) and in future air-to-ground communications. On the airframes, RTI connects flight control computers, sensors and on-board application computers. Within GCSs, RTI connects the systems that decode data feeds, analyze a UAV’s situation and interface to the operator control. RTI middleware is also being used in the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), Advanced Cockpit GCS.

“UAV systems are a great application for RTI’s real-time middleware technology,” explained David Barnett, vice-president of Marketing at RTI. “RTI provides features such as highly tunable real-time Quality of Service and support for multiple transmission protocols, including unreliable network connections. These characteristics enable UAV systems to operate more reliably and ensure high performance in a wide variety of missions.”

The DDS standard provides a highly scalable infrastructure for evolving UAV systems. Instead of relying on hard-coded or pre-configured connections, it allows applications to communicate in a loosely coupled fashion via anonymous publish-subscribe messaging. Applications communicate by indicating the types of data that they publish and subscribe. Messages are automatically routed between publishing and subscribing applications based on their content. DDS addresses both cross-vendor source-code portability through a standard Application Programming Interface (API) and multi-vendor run-time interoperability through a standard wire protocol.

RTI’s implementation of the DDS standard adheres to both API and wire protocol specifications while offering extremely high performance. In particular, RTI provides a completely tunable reliability model to optimize transport utilization over transient, high-delay, bandwidth-limited and lossy networks. The result is efficient and reliable transport for unreliable networks that can be tuned as network conditions and bandwidth requirements fluctuate. This type of transport is ideal for wireless and/or highly uncertain communication between a vehicle and the ground station.

The use of RTI middleware reduces application complexity by abstracting communication details, which enables developers write less code to achieve a more robust solution. RTI middleware also improves system responsiveness and the ability to meet more mission parameters in actual use.

About RTI Middleware
RTI’s high-performance messaging and data distribution software enables the development and integration of distributed applications that require low latency, high throughput, high scalability, deterministic responses and minimal consumption of network, processor and memory resources. RTI meets the unique and demanding requirements of mission-critical real-time systems, including the ability to run in dynamic and autonomous environments and over unreliable or low-bandwidth networks such as wireless and satellite links.

RTI middleware was the first to comply with the DDS standards for API portability and wire interoperability. RTI is the world’s leading supplier of DDS-related software and services.

RTI at AUVSI
RTI’s real-time messaging and data distribution technology for UAV applications will be demonstrated at the AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems conference on June 9-11at the San Diego Convention Center, booth 2313. For an appointment, please contact the RTI Sales department at 408-990-7400.

About RTI
Real-Time Innovations (RTI) provides high-performance infrastructure solutions for the development, deployment and integration of real time, data-driven applications. RTI’s messaging, caching, Complex Event Processing (CEP) and visualization capabilities deliver dramatic improvements in latency, throughput and scalability while slashing cost of ownership. The company’s software and design expertise have been leveraged in a broad range of industries including defense, intelligence, simulation, industrial control, transportation, finance, medical and communications. Founded in 1991, RTI is privately held and headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA. For more information, please visit www.rti.com.

RTI, Real-Time Innovations, The Real-Time Middleware Company and RTI Data Distribution Service are registered trademarks or trademarks of Real-Time Innovations, Inc. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.