Controllers for Fault Tolerant Actuators

Abstract

The Fly‐by‐Wire technology enables flexible shaping of both effective dynamics and handling qualities of aircraft. This solution extends aircraft possibilities and supports the pilot by use of high‐level control laws. Application of FBW for aircraft would make flying both safer, and more popular. On the other hand the FBW system must be highly reliable. Advanced indirect flight control technology requires the use of actuators characterized by fault tolerant architecture. It should enable improvement of reliability of the aircraft control system and safety of performed flights effectively. The Electromechanical Actuator (EMA) consists of the electric motor, gearbox and controller. The actuator controller should be made intrinsically reliable and should be insensitive to other equipment failure. The conception of fault tolerant control algorithms as well as practical realization of it has been presented in this work. Tests of reliability of the complete EMA unit have also been presented herein.

Aircraft Control Law Reconfiguration

“…The functional redundancy of the controls forms the basis of the reconfiguration. Aircraft stability and controllability preservation is achieved by the additional off-design deviation of the operable control surfaces (Hajiyev, Caliskan 2004;Dolega 2005;Dołega, Rzucidło 2007).…”

Transformative Use of Additive Technology in Design and Manufacture of Hydraulic Actuator for Fly-by-Wire System

“…Such a structure is particularly noticeable in a characteristic of the actuator presented in this paper and dedicated to the fly-by-wire (FBW) control system. Due to the lack of direct mechanical connection between the inceptors (steering wheel and mini side-stick) and the actuators of the control surfaces, FBW systems require very high reliability and there must also be multiple (redundant) systems [26][27][28][29][30]. In this study, it was of interest to investigate the mechanical properties of additive manufacturing (AM) samples produced by SLM and the potential of the application of this technology in the design and manufacture of hydraulic components for aerospace.…”