#Redundant flight control system software#

The controllers of the flight control components are coupled to two of the six buses. The first, second and third subsets are different from one another. One exemplary fly-by-wire electrical system suitable for use with a vehicle includes a bus arrangement comprising a plurality of buses, a first control module coupled to a first subset of the plurality of buses, the first subset including a first bus, a second bus, a third bus, and a fourth bus, a second control module coupled to a second subset of the plurality of buses, the second subset including the third bus, the fourth bus, a fifth bus, and a sixth bus, and a third control module coupled to a third subset of the plurality of buses, the third subset including the first bus, the second bus, the fifth bus and the sixth bus. Vehicle electrical systems suitable for use with an aircraft are provided.

Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background. Accordingly, it is desirable to also minimize the impact on the availability of flight control components in response to fault conditions. However, eschewing fully redundant wiring may undesirably result in failure modes that are inadequate for non-conventional aircraft, such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. For smaller aircraft, such as air taxis or other urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, it is often desirable to minimize the amount of wiring, weight, and associated costs.

For safety purposes, fly-by-wire systems often employ redundancy to ensure they are fail operational however, this often increases the amount of wiring and interfaces required. Instead of mechanical linkages between cockpit controls and flight control surfaces, propulsion systems and/or lift systems, electrical signals are utilized to communicate movements of cockpit controls to the controllers associated with the appropriate flight control components or systems. In some modern aircraft, traditional mechanical flight control systems have been replaced with electrically controlled actuators, often referred to as fly-by-wire. The subject matter described herein relates generally to aircraft systems, and more particularly, embodiments of the subject matter relate to redundant fly-by-wire systems configured to achieve fault resiliency for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. 62/846,370, filed May 10, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated by reference herein.

#Redundant flight control system software#

“The use of variable pitch propellers in larger aircraft has proven to be an effective tool for increasing endurance, range and efficiency.”īut first, to make the secondary safety system work, Moore and his team have to reverse-engineer software in the aircraft to send, rather than just receive, telemetry data, remote control directives and information from the aircraft’s various sensors.This application claims the benefit of U.S. “A secondary goal of this project is the development of a low-cost, variable-speed propeller for sUAS integration,” Moore added. If successful, Moore believes that the project could help push the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) toward easing current regulations, which would allow for wider use of autonomous aircraft in the National Airspace System. “The proposed system would serve as a ‘backup’ to the primary flight computer, in the case of an in-flight loss of communications or control,” said Robert Moore, lead graduate researcher on the project and first-year student in the Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Engineering master’s programme.īacked by funding from NASA’s University Student Research Challenge, the Assured Autonomy Research Initiative aims to improve the safety and reliability of sUAS by creating a redundant flight control system. Research currently being conducted at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Aviation could play a major role in expanding restrictions on small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS), or drones, being flown beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of their operators - marking an important milestone that would pave the way for advancements like drone delivery and urban air mobility, according to a university press release.