FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEMS

Lecture 03 - Avionics
1

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Avionics System
y
- General

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Flight Control Systems

`

Consists of the flight control

surfaces, the respective cockpit
c ntr ls cconnecting
controls,
nnectin linkage,
linka e and
necessaryy operating
p
g mechanisms to
control aircraft in flight.

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Flight Control Systems

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A/C Axes

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Flight Control Systems

`
`
`

Control yoke for roll which moves the

ailerons
Control column for pitch which moves the
elevators
Rudder pedals for yaw which moves the
rudder
dd
Many aircraft use a control stick for both roll
and pitch,
pitch and the rudder pedals for yaw
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OBJECTIVES
`

Reduce pilot workload at useful

times (like on landing, or in the
h er)
hover)

Remove ppilot error

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CATEGORIES
`

Mechanical
`
`

The most basic designs

U d iin early
Used
l aircraft
i
f and
d currently
l in
i
small A/Cs where the aerodynamic
f
forces
are nott excessive
i
Uses a collection of mechanical parts
suchh as rods,
d cables,
bl pulleys
ll
and
d
sometimes chains to transmit the forces
off the
th cockpit
k it controls
t l to
t the
th control
t l
surfaces
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CATEGORIES
`

Hydromechanical
`
`

Overcomes the complexity and weight of a

mechanical flight control systems
has 2 parts

`
`

The mechanical circuit

The hydraulic circuit

Mechanical
M
h
l circuit is made
d off rods,
d cables,
bl
pulleys, and sometimes chains
Hydraulic circuit has hydraulic pumps, pipes,
valves and actuators
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CATEGORIES
`

Fly-by-wire
y y
`
`

`
`
`

10

Replaces physical control of the aircraft with an

electrical interface
Can respond more flexibly to changing
aerodynamic conditions, by tailoring flight control
surface movements so that airplane response to
control inputs is consistent for all flight
conditions
Less maintenance
Enhances safety
Reliable - incorporated redundant computers
and some kind of mechanical or hydraulic backup
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CATEGORIES
`

Fl b
Fly-by-optics
`

Uses light as the transmission means

Can transfer data at higher

g
speeds
p
Immune to electromagnetic
interference
Has the same data interpretation
mechanism as the FbW

`
`

11

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CATEGORIES
`

12

Power by wire
Power-by-wire
` Eliminate the bulky and heavy
hydraulic circuits
` Replaced by an electrical power
circuit
i i
` Controlled by
y the digital
g flight
g
control computers
` Weight savings
` Greatly reduces maintenance costs
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CATEGORIES
`

Intelligent
g
`
`
`

13

Intelligent Flight Control System

An extension of modern digital
g fly-by-wire
y y
flight
g
control systems
Intelligently compensate for aircraft damage and
f il
failure
during
d i fli
flight,
ht suchh as automatically
t
ti ll using
i
engine thrust and other avionics to compensate
for severe failures such as loss of hydraulics, loss
of rudder, loss of ailerons, loss of an engine, etc
Enhancement is mostly a software upgrade to an
existing fully computerized digital fly-by-wire
flight control systems
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Intelligent Flight Control System

14

A computer program implements a dynamic-cellstructure (DCS) artificial neural network that can perform
such tasks as learning selected aerodynamic
characteristics of an airplane from wind-tunnel test data
and computing real-time stability and control derivatives
of the airplane for use in feedback linearized control. A
DCS neural network is one of several types of neural
networks that can incorporate additional nodes in order
to rapidly learn increasingly complex relationships
between inputs and outputs. In the DCS neural network
implemented by the present program, the insertion of
nodes is based on accumulated error.
error
A competitive Hebbian learning rule (a supervisedlearning rule in which connection weights are adjusted
to minimize differences between actual and desired
outputs for training examples) is used.
A Kohonen-style learning rule (derived from a relatively
simple training algorithm, implements a Delaunay
triangulation layout of neurons) is used to adjust node
positions during training. Neighborhood topology
determines which nodes are used to estimate new
values.
The network learns, starting with two nodes, and adds
new nodes sequentially in locations chosen to maximize
reductions in global error. At any given time during
learning the error becomes homogeneously distributed
learning,
over all nodes

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