DO-200B / ED-76A (aeronautical data process assurance)

What it is

RTCA DO-200B, Standards for Processing Aeronautical Data (EUROCAE ED-76A), is the industry standard FAA AC 20-153B uses for aeronautical data processes. The standard text is sold by RTCA and is not reproduced here.

FAA AC 20-153B, dated 19 April 2016, describes an acceptable means, but not the only means, for showing compliance with the applicable airworthiness regulations for equipment with an installed aeronautical database. The AC is not mandatory and is not a regulation.

The FAA wrote the AC to help assess compliance regarding aeronautical data processing using the requirements of RTCA/DO-200B, to explain the use of RTCA/DO-200B when seeking technical standard order authorization (TSOA) and installation approval, and to obtain a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from the FAA. An LOA confirms compliance with RTCA/DO-200B.

What “aeronautical data” means here

AC 20-153B defines aeronautical data as data used for aeronautical applications such as navigation, flight planning, flight simulators, terrain awareness, and other purposes (e.g., navigation data, terrain and obstacle data, and airport mapping data). It is not airborne system configuration files or lookup tables used to adapt equipment to the aircraft.

DO-200B is the standard used to develop, assess change and support implementation of data quality management. Data-quality characteristics named in the AC include accuracy, resolution, assurance level, timeliness, completeness, traceability and format. Scope includes the interface to a data supplier, receipt of the data, processing of the data, database distribution, and the interface to a customer (user).

The B revision expanded from a navigation data-centric focus to include all types of aeronautical data and adapted RTCA/DO-330, Software Tools Qualification Considerations, to provide better structure and consistency for database production tool qualification. See DO-330.

How it sits next to AI / ML data

DO-200B is about aeronautical databases (navigation, terrain, airport mapping), not training-set learning assurance. EASA Issue 2 covers ML data sets, the ODD and the W-shaped process. The FAA AI Safety Assurance Roadmap discusses applying existing standards; it does not make DO-200B an ML-training AMC. See the roadmap explainer.

A program that feeds aeronautical data into an airborne ML function may have both a DO-200B data-process argument and an EASA-style learning-assurance argument. Those are different packages. We have not found a public FAA page that says a training set is an “aeronautical database” under AC 20-153B.

What it is not

DO-200B is not DO-178C software assurance, not ARP4754 systems development, and not an AI-model certificate. After AC 20-153B, RTCA/DO-200A is no longer an acceptable means of compliance for new TSO and installation approvals, except where it is already part of the certification basis.