Airframe health monitor
First Claim
1. A system, comprising:
- an airframe including a body and a plurality of arms extending from the body, each arm of the plurality of arms including a respective outer surface of the arm and a respective perimeter of the arm;
a plurality of force sensitive resistor (FSR) sensors, each FSR sensor of the plurality of FSR sensors mounted on an outer surface of and extending around at least a portion of the perimeter of one of the arms of the airframe, and each FSR sensor of the plurality of FSR sensors configured to measure stress at the outer surface of the one of the arms on which the FSR sensor is mounted; and
a controller mounted on the airframe and electrically connected to the plurality of FSR sensors, the controller configured to determine a status of the airframe in real time including whether there is at least one of an impact, damage, fault or break at or of the outer surface of one of the arms on which at least one of the FSR sensors is mounted, based on outputs of the FSR sensors.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An airframe health monitoring system uses a controller to automatically determine a status of the airframe of an aircraft in real time, at power up and periodically during flight of the aircraft, based on the output of pressure sensors such as ribbon sensors and flex sensors mounted on the airframe arms and body. The controller can determine in real time whether the airframe has a fault or is damaged based on continuity measured in ribbon sensors located along the outside surfaces of the airframe. The controller can also determine a metric on the status of the airframe in real time based on arm impulses measured in flex sensors located along inside surfaces of arms of the airframe. This will lead to less expensive, more accurate, faster, automated detection of airframe faults, airframe damage and/or metrics on the health of the airframe.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A system, comprising:
-
an airframe including a body and a plurality of arms extending from the body, each arm of the plurality of arms including a respective outer surface of the arm and a respective perimeter of the arm; a plurality of force sensitive resistor (FSR) sensors, each FSR sensor of the plurality of FSR sensors mounted on an outer surface of and extending around at least a portion of the perimeter of one of the arms of the airframe, and each FSR sensor of the plurality of FSR sensors configured to measure stress at the outer surface of the one of the arms on which the FSR sensor is mounted; and a controller mounted on the airframe and electrically connected to the plurality of FSR sensors, the controller configured to determine a status of the airframe in real time including whether there is at least one of an impact, damage, fault or break at or of the outer surface of one of the arms on which at least one of the FSR sensors is mounted, based on outputs of the FSR sensors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An aircraft, comprising:
-
an airframe including a body and a plurality of arms extending from the body, each arm of the plurality of arms including a respective outer surface and a respective perimeter of the arm; at least one of the arms of the airframe including a force sensitive resistor (FSR) sensor mounted on an outer surface of and extending around at least a portion of the perimeter of the arm of the airframe, the FSR sensor configured to measure stress at the outer surface of the arm on which the FSR sensor is mounted; at least two of the arms of the airframe each including a respective propulsion source mounted on the arm of the airframe; at least one of the arms, which includes one of the propulsion sources mounted on the arm, including a resistive force sensor mounted inside the arm and configured to measure impulses along the arm inside of which the resistive force sensor is mounted; and a controller mounted on the airframe and electrically connected to the FSR and resistive force sensors, the controller configured to detect in real time whether the airframe is damaged based on outputs of the FSR and resistive force sensors. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method of monitoring a status of an airframe that includes a body and a plurality of arms extending from the body, wherein each arm of the plurality of arms includes a respective outer surface of the arm and a respective perimeter of the arm, the method comprising:
-
measuring stress at the perimeter of each of at least two of the arms of the airframe using a plurality of force sensitive resistor (FSR) sensors each of which is mounted on the outer surface of and extends around at least a portion of the perimeter of a respective one of the arms; and determining a status of the airframe in real time based on the stress measured at the perimeter of at least two of the arms of the airframe using the plurality of FSR sensors. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
Specification