Fail safe electrical brake control system for aircraft
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An electrical brake control system for aircraft, comprising:
- a brake coil shutoff valve providing hydraulic pressure to an aircraft brake system;
a shutoff valve driver connected to and selectively actuating said brake control shutoff valve;
a pair of operator actuated brake pedals allowing the pilot to regulate the hydraulic pressure applied to brakes of the aircraft;
a plurality of switches providing data respecting a positional status of a landing gear, a landing gear handle, and a weight-on-wheels switch;
a discrete logic circuit interposed between said plurality of switches and said shutoff valve driver for enabling said shutoff valve driver when said switches are in a first predetermined state; and
a software controlled microprocessor interposed between said plurality of switches and said shutoff valve driver for inhibiting said shutoff valve driver when said switches are not in said first predetermined state.
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Abstract
A brake-by-wire control system for aircraft brakes is presented. The system includes a hardware based discrete component control path and a software control path, the two operating in parallel. Each of the paths monitors the same input, with the hardware path being configured to enable the shutoff valve driver and the software path being configured to inhibit the shutoff valve driver, depending upon the status of the inputs. As a consequence, a failure in a single path in the braking system cannot enable the brake system so as to allow for inadvertent braking.
56 Citations
9 Claims
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1. An electrical brake control system for aircraft, comprising:
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a brake coil shutoff valve providing hydraulic pressure to an aircraft brake system;
a shutoff valve driver connected to and selectively actuating said brake control shutoff valve;
a pair of operator actuated brake pedals allowing the pilot to regulate the hydraulic pressure applied to brakes of the aircraft;
a plurality of switches providing data respecting a positional status of a landing gear, a landing gear handle, and a weight-on-wheels switch;
a discrete logic circuit interposed between said plurality of switches and said shutoff valve driver for enabling said shutoff valve driver when said switches are in a first predetermined state; and
a software controlled microprocessor interposed between said plurality of switches and said shutoff valve driver for inhibiting said shutoff valve driver when said switches are not in said first predetermined state. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification