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- Title
A Decentralized Voting and Monitoring Flight Control Actuation System for eVTOL Aircraft.
- Authors
He, Ruichen; Holzapfel, Florian; Bröcker, Johannes; Lai, Yi; Zhang, Shuguang
- Abstract
The emergence of eVTOL (electrical Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft necessitates the development of safe and efficient systems to meet stringent certification and operational requirements. The primary state-of-the-art technology for flight control actuation in eVTOL aircraft is electro-mechanical actuators (EMAs), which heavily rely on multiple redundancies of critical components to achieve fault tolerance. However, challenges persist in terms of insufficient reliability, immaturity, and a lack of a measurable evaluation method. This research addresses these issues by elucidating the design requirements for EMAs in eVTOL aircraft and proposing a systematic design and evaluation approach for EMA architecture. A key enhancement involves the incorporation of decentralized voting and monitoring (VoDeMo) mechanisms within the Electronic Control Units (ECUs) to improve the overall safety of the EMA. The paper introduces an innovative triple-dual redundant architecture for aircraft control effectors, comprising three dissimilar lanes of ECUs and two similar redundant parallel channels of power electronics and motors. The design is synergistically supported by a comprehensive evaluation that incorporates quantifiable Model-Based Safety Assessment (MBSA), utilizing both physical simulation and logical safety models. Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) tests are conducted on a constructed prototype to validate the proposed architecture.
- Subjects
FLIGHT control systems; POWER electronics; FAULT tolerance (Engineering); VOTING; ELECTRONIC control
- Publication
Aerospace (MDPI Publishing), 2024, Vol 11, Issue 3, p195
- ISSN
2226-4310
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/aerospace11030195