DISTRIBUTED FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20110118906A1
• Filed: 02/04/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: Maussion, Antoine, Fervel, Marc, Aubert, Jean-Jacques
• Granted Patent: US 8,600,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 13/503 Fly-by-Wire

Abstract

A flight control system for an aircraft, controlling a plurality of actuators adapted to actuate control surfaces of the aircraft, including: at least one communications bus; at least one computer situated in the avionics bay of the aircraft, and adapted to calculate flight commands and to transmit them over the bus in the form of command messages; and at least a first remote terminal connected to the bus, adapted to control a control surface actuator, and to acquire the state of the actuator from information provided by at least a first sensor, the first terminal receiving command messages from the computer and transmitting electrical orders to the actuator as a function of the command messages received in this way, and also transmitting messages to the computer, at its request, relating to the state of the actuator as a function of the information provided by the first sensor.

Claims

1. A flight control system for an aircraft, for controlling a plurality of actuators adapted to actuate control surfaces of said aircraft, the system comprising:

at least one communications bus;

at least one computer situated in the avionics bay of the aircraft, and adapted to calculate flight commands and to transmit them over said bus in the form of command messages;

at least a first remote terminal connected to said bus, adapted to control a control surface actuator, and to acquire the state of said actuator from information provided by at least a first sensor fitted thereto, said first terminal receiving command messages from the computer and transmitting electrical orders to the actuator as a function of the command messages thus received, and also transmitting messages to the computer, at the request thereof, relating to the state of the actuator as a function of the information provided by said first sensor; and

at least one second remote terminal connected to said bus and adapted to acquire the state of a control surface from information provided by a second sensor fitted thereto, and also adapted to transmit messages to the computer, at the request thereof, relating to the state of said control surface as a function of information provided by said second sensor.

3. An aircraft flight control system according to claim 1, wherein the bus is constituted by a differentially-powered twisted pair, exchanges over the bus being performed in half-duplex mode and using a master-slave type protocol.

4. A flight control system according to claim 1, wherein said computer comprises:

a first channel for computing flight commands, for sending them in the form of command messages to a plurality of said first terminals, and for receiving acknowledgments of receipt from the terminals and also for sending requests to the terminals in order to obtain in return the respective states of the actuators controlled by the terminals and of the control surfaces moved by the actuators; and

a second channel serving to calculate flight commands and to transform them into command messages, and to listen to and to record the messages passing over the bus, coming from and going to said first channel;

the command messages of the first channel being compared with the command messages of the second channel.

5. A flight control system according to claim 1, wherein the system has a single bus and said computer comprises:

a first channel for computing flight commands, for sending them in the form of command messages to a plurality of said first terminals, and for receiving acknowledgments of receipt from the terminals and also for sending requests to the terminals in order to obtain in return the respective states of the actuators controlled by the terminals and of the control surfaces moved by the actuators, said first channel being connected to said bus via a connection that is controlled by means of a bus controller; and

a second channel, connected to said controller, and serving to calculate flight commands and to transform them into command messages, and to listen to and to record the messages transmitted and received from said controller, coming from and going to said first channel;

the command messages of the first channel being compared with the command messages of the second channel.

6. A flight control system according to claim 1, wherein the system has a single bus and said computer comprises:

a first channel (COM) for computing flight commands, for sending them in the form of command messages to a plurality of said first terminals, and for receiving acknowledgments of receipt from the terminals and also for sending requests to the terminals in order to obtain in return the respective states of the actuators controlled by the terminals and of the control surfaces moved by the actuators, said first channel being connected to said bus via a connection that is controlled by means of a bus controller; and

a second channel connected to said first channel and serving to calculate flight commands and to transform them into command messages, to receive messages from and to said first channel, relayed thereby to the second channel; and

the command messages of the first channel being compared with the command messages of the second channel.

7. A flight control system according to claim 4, wherein said first terminal comprises:

a first channel for receiving command messages from said computer, for acknowledging receipt thereof, and for transmitting electrical orders to the actuator controlled by said terminal; and

a second channel for receiving requests from said computer and for returning messages relating to the state of said actuator and/or the state of a control surface moved thereby.

8. A flight control system according to claim 7, wherein said first and second channels of the computer and said first and second channels of the first terminal are connected to a single bus.

9. A flight control system according to claim 8, wherein the first channel of the computer has a bus controller in series with a transceiver and a transformer providing coupling with the bus, the second channel of the computer comprises a bus monitor module in series with a transceiver, and a transformer providing coupling with the bus, and each of the first and second channels of the first terminal comprises a control module in series with a transceiver and a transformer providing coupling with the bus.

10. A flight control system according to claim 7, wherein said first channels of the computer and of the first terminal are connected to a first bus and said second channels of the computer and of the first terminal are connected to a second bus).

11. A flight control system according to claim 10, wherein each of said first and second channels of the computer comprises a bus controller in series with a transceiver and a transformer providing coupling with the first and second buses, respectively, and each of the first and second channels of the first terminal comprises a control module in series with a transceiver and a transformer providing coupling with the first and second buses, respectively.

12. A flight control system according to claim 7, wherein the first channel comprises a bus controller in series with two first branches in parallel, each first branch comprising a transceiver in series with a transformer for coupling respectively with a first bus and with a second bus, the second channel comprises a monitor module in series with two second branches in parallel, each second branch comprising a receiver in series with a transformer for providing coupling with said first and second buses, respectively, and each of the first and second channels of the first terminal comprises a control module in series with two third branches in parallel, each third branch comprising a transceiver in series with a transformer for providing coupling with said first and second buses, respectively.

13. An aircraft having a plurality of control surfaces adapted to be operates by actuators, the aircraft comprising a flight control system according to claim 1.

2. A flight control system for an aircraft, for controlling a plurality of actuators adapted to actuate control surfaces of said aircraft, the system comprising:

at least one communications bus;

at least one computer situated in the avionics bay of the aircraft, and adapted to calculate flight commands and to transmit them over said bus in the form of command messages;

at least a first remote terminal connected to said bus, adapted to control a control surface actuator, and to acquire the state of said actuator from information provided by at least a first sensor fitted thereto, said first terminal receiving command messages from the computer and transmitting electrical orders to the actuator as a function of the command messages received in this way, and also transmitting messages to the computer, at its request, relating to the state of the actuator as a function of the information provided by said first sensor; and

the first terminal also being adapted to acquire the state of a control surface moved by said actuator from information provided by at least one second sensor fitted thereto, and also being adapted to transmit messages to the computer, at the request thereof, relating to the state of said control surface as a function of information provided by said second sensor.