Distributed control method of flight control actuation system

Abstract

The invention relates to a distributed control method of a flight control actuation system. The method is performed by a first remote electronic unit, comprising: receiving first control surface position information of a control surface from a control surface position sensor mounted to the control surface; receiving second control surface position information of the control surface from a first actuator of the control surface, wherein the first actuator is controlled by the first remote electronic unit; receiving third control surface position information of the control surface from a second remote electronic unit, the third control surface position information being received by the second remote electronic unit from a second actuator of the control surface, and the second actuator being controlled by the second remote electronic unit; based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information and the third control surface position information, detecting whether the first actuator has an LVDT disengagement fault or not; and when it is detected that the LVDT disengagement fault occurs to the first actuator, the first actuator is cut off.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of flight control of aircraft, and in particular to a distributed control method for a flight control actuation system. Background Art

[0002] Currently, the control method of civil aircraft generally adopts a fly-by-wire flight control system, using side sticks, foot pedals, speed brake handles, etc. as manipulation input devices, redundant flight control digital computers (FCMs), actuator control electronics (ACEs), and remote electronics units (REUs) as core processing components, and electromechanical and electro-hydraulic servo actuators as execution components. By calculating control laws, the corresponding control surfaces are controlled to achieve full-time and full-authority fly-by-wire operation. After the FCM uniformly calculates the control instructions, they are respectively sent to each ACE, and the ACE further transmits the instructions to the REU it controls. Finally, the local position closed-loop control of the actuator is achieved through the REU to drive the control surface. According to redundancy allocation, multiple actuators of the same control surface are controlled by different REUs, and each REU receives control signals from different ACEs.

[0003] However, in the current flight control system, although the distributed layout of the actuator controller (for example, the remote electronics unit REU) is realized, the centralized control and monitoring of the entire actuation loop are still relied on the flight control computer (for example, FCM, ACE, etc.) to ensure the high integrity requirements of the actuation loop. When the main flight control system (for example, FCM) degrades and enters the direct mode, the control surface control function will be lost, making it impossible to continue controlling the control surface and the maneuverability of the aircraft decreases.

[0004] The present disclosure has been improved in view of but not limited to the above-mentioned many factors. Summary of the Invention

[0005] For this reason, the present disclosure proposes a distributed control method for a flight control actuation system, which uses a remote electronics unit to achieve two-level control of the actuation loop and the control surface. In the method of the present disclosure, the closed-loop control of the actuation loop is realized in the remote electronics unit, and at the same time, the monitoring of the entire control surface state is realized, so as to ensure that the control and monitoring functions of the control surface loop are still available after the system degrades, and high availability of the control surface is obtained.

[0006] The flight control actuation system of the present disclosure includes a remote electronic unit, an actuator, and a control surface position sensor. The remote electronic unit can receive control instructions issued by the main flight control computer, drive the control surface actuator to move, and transmit and feedback the actuator status information and the control surface loop status information to the central computer. The remote electronic unit not only has the functions of single-actuator loop control and monitoring, but also integrates the coordinated control and feedback of multiple actuators of the same control surface, the monitoring of actuator LVDT disconnection, etc. The remote electronic unit receives instructions from the main flight control computer, drives the actuator to move, and at the same time realizes the coordinated control between multiple actuators by cross-linking with adjacent remote electronic units. In addition, the remote electronic unit collects the control surface position through the control surface position sensor and monitors the control surface position status to prevent non-instructional movement after the actuator sensor is disconnected. Thus, in the method of the present disclosure, when the flight control computer degrades, the remote electronic unit still has the control loop and control surface level functions.

[0007] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a distributed control method for a flight control actuation system executed by a first remote electronic unit, including: receiving first control surface position information of the control surface from a control surface position sensor installed on the control surface; receiving second control surface position information of the control surface from a first actuator of the control surface, where the first actuator is controlled by the first remote electronic unit; receiving third control surface position information of the control surface from a second remote electronic unit, where the third control surface position information is received by the second remote electronic unit from a second actuator of the control surface, and the second actuator is controlled by the second remote electronic unit; detecting whether the first actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information; and cutting off the first actuator when it is detected that the first actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault.

[0008] According to an embodiment, the method further includes sending the second control surface position information to the second remote electronic unit.

[0009] According to another embodiment, the method further includes sending the first control surface position information to the second remote electronic unit.

[0010] According to still another embodiment, the control surface position sensor is further connected to the second remote electronic unit.

[0011] According to still another embodiment, the second control surface position information and the third control surface position information are transmitted through a direct communication link between the first remote electronic unit and the second remote electronic unit.

[0012] According to another embodiment, detecting whether the first actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information includes: detecting that the first actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault when it is determined that the differences between the second control surface position information and the first control surface position information and between the second control surface position information and the third control surface position information both exceed a threshold, and the difference between the first control surface position information and the third control surface position information does not exceed the threshold.

[0013] According to another embodiment, the threshold is fixed or can be set by the user.

[0014] According to another embodiment, the method further includes: receiving first pressure sensing information of the control surface from the first actuator; receiving second pressure sensing information of the control surface from the second remote electronic unit, where the second pressure sensing information is received by the second remote electronic unit from the second actuator; and determining whether a force dispute occurs for the control surface based on the first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information.

[0015] According to another embodiment, the first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information are sampled at a sampling frequency of 960 Hz.

[0016] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a remote electronic unit for a flight control actuation system, including: a signal acquisition interface, the signal acquisition interface including: a control surface position sensor interface configured to interface with a control surface position sensor to acquire first control surface position information; an actuator interface configured to interface with an actuator to acquire second control surface position information; and a unit communication interface configured to interface with another remote electronic unit to acquire third control surface position information; and a controller configured to: detect whether the actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information; and cut off the actuator when it is detected that the actuator has an LVDT disconnection fault.

[0017] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an aircraft including the remote electronic unit according to the second aspect of the present disclosure.

[0018] Accordingly, the solutions of the present disclosure have various advantages. For example, by adding monitoring of the flap position in the remote electronic unit, the accuracy of actuator LVDT disconnection detection is improved, the situation of cutting off the entire flap due to a single actuator failure is avoided, and the availability of the flap and the remaining configurable redundancy of flight control are ensured; by assigning the LVDT disconnection monitoring and the like originally performed by the traditional flight control computer to the remote electronic unit, the complexity of the flight control computer equipment is simplified, the system function no longer depends on a single device, and the failure of the device is not likely to spread and affect the entire system; since the corresponding monitoring function is implemented in the remote electronic unit, the remote electronic unit can sample the signal at a higher sampling frequency (such as 960 Hz), so that when detecting high-frequency oscillation signals, the phenomenon of wave peaks and wave valleys can still be accurately collected. Compared with the monitoring function implemented in the flight control computer, the monitoring ability in the full frequency band is significantly improved, and more accurate and rapid fault capture and a wider monitoring frequency coverage can be achieved; in the method of the present disclosure, if the flight control computer degrades, the remote electronic unit still has control loop and flap-level functions; the method of the present disclosure can be implemented by using the original design of the remote electronic unit without changing the original interface, and has good applicability; and so on.

[0019] Aspects generally include methods, apparatus, systems, computer program products, and processing systems substantially as described herein with reference to the figures and as illustrated by the figures.

[0020] The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of examples in accordance with the present disclosure so that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter. The disclosed concepts and specific examples may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes as the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the scope of the appended claims. The characteristics of the concepts disclosed herein, both as to their organization and method of operation, as well as associated advantages, will be better understood from the following description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying figures. Each of the figures is provided for purposes of illustration and description and does not define a limitation of the claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] To understand in detail the manner in which the above-recited features of the present disclosure are used, a more particular description may be had of the above-briefly summarized subject matter, some aspects of which are illustrated in the figures. It should be noted, however, that the figures illustrate only certain typical aspects of the present disclosure and should not be considered to limit its scope, as the description may admit to other equally effective aspects. Like reference numerals in different figures may identify the same or similar elements.

[0022] Figure 1 A schematic diagram showing the flight control system architecture of an aircraft is shown;

[0023] Figure 2 shows a schematic circuit connection diagram of an existing flight control system;

[0024] Figure 3 shows a schematic circuit connection diagram of a flight control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0025] Figure 4 shows a flowchart of a distributed control method for a flight control actuation system executed by a remote electronic unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0026] Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of a remote electronic unit of a flight control actuation system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0027] Figure 6 shows a schematic diagram of an aircraft according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] The inventors have recognized that the flight control system of an aircraft (especially a civil aircraft) manipulates the aircraft through movable control surfaces such as ailerons, elevators, rudders, spoilers, etc. for rolling, pitching, yawing, decelerating, ground breaking, etc., so as to achieve aircraft attitude control. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the flight control system architecture of an aircraft. It can be seen that the aircraft 100 includes various control surfaces such as ailerons, multifunctional spoilers, ground spoilers, elevators, rudders, horizontal stabilizers, etc. These control surfaces can be manipulated by corresponding actuators to achieve aircraft attitude control.

[0029] Currently, the control method of civil aircraft generally adopts a fly-by-wire flight control system, using side sticks, foot pedals, speed brake handles, etc. as manipulation input devices, using redundant flight control digital computers (FCMs), actuator control electronics (ACEs), and remote electronic units (REUs) as core processing components, and using electromechanical and electro-hydraulic servo actuators as execution components. By solving control laws, corresponding control surfaces are controlled to achieve full-time and full-authority fly-by-wire operation. Thus, the current flight control system performs centralized signal processing and control surface control instruction calculation through a flight control computer, transmits the generated control surface position instructions to a remote electronic unit (i.e., an actuator controller) through a high-speed serial digital bus, and the remote electronic unit converts the position instructions into analog signals to control the actuator for mechanical output to manipulate the control surface. Generally, a single remote electronic unit realizes the control of a single actuation loop, and the complete control at the control surface loop level depends on the flight control computer.

[0030] For example, Figure 2 shows a schematic circuit connection diagram of an existing flight control system. As Figure 2As shown, after the FCM uniformly calculates the control instructions, they are sent to each ACE respectively. The ACE further passes the instructions to the REU it controls. Finally, the local position closed-loop control of the actuator is realized through the REU to drive the control surface. According to the redundancy allocation, multiple actuators of the same control surface are controlled by different REUs, and each REU receives the control signals of different ACEs.

[0031] The inventors recognize that in the current flight control system, although the distributed layout of the actuator controller (e.g., Remote Electronic Unit REU) is achieved, it still relies on the flight control computer (e.g., FCM, ACE, etc.) to centrally implement the control and monitoring of the entire actuation loop to ensure the high integrity requirements of the actuation loop. However, when the primary flight control system degrades and enters the direct mode (i.e., the degraded mode), the control surface control function will be lost, making it impossible to continue controlling the control surface, and the maneuverability of the aircraft decreases. For example, if the FCM receives different control surface position information returned by two remote electronic units of the same control surface, the FCM cannot determine which remote electronic unit's returned control surface position information is correct. Therefore, for safety or any other appropriate reasons, the FCM will cut off these two REUs (or the corresponding actuators), thus losing the control function of the control surface.

[0032] For this reason, the present disclosure proposes a distributed control method for a flight control actuation system, which uses a remote electronic unit to implement two-level control of the actuation loop and the control surface. In the method of the present disclosure, the closed-loop control of the actuation loop is realized in the remote electronic unit, and at the same time, the monitoring of the entire control surface state is realized, so as to ensure that the control and monitoring functions of the control surface loop are still available after the system degrades, and high availability of the control surface is obtained.

[0033] The flight control actuation system of the present disclosure includes a remote electronic unit, an actuator, and a control surface position sensor. The remote electronic unit can receive the control instructions issued by the primary flight control computer, drive the control surface actuator to move, and transmit and feedback the actuator state information and the control surface loop state information to the central computer. The remote electronic unit not only has the control and monitoring functions of a single actuation loop, but also integrates the coordinated control and feedback of multiple actuators of the same control surface, the monitoring of the actuator LVDT disconnection, etc. The remote electronic unit receives the instructions from the primary flight control computer, drives the actuator to move, and at the same time realizes the coordinated control between multiple actuators by cross-linking with adjacent remote electronic units. In addition, the remote electronic unit collects the control surface position through the control surface position sensor and monitors the control surface position state to prevent non-instruction movement after the actuator sensor is disconnected. Thus, in the method of the present disclosure, if the flight control computer degrades, the remote electronic unit still has the control loop and control surface level functions.

[0034] For example, Figure 3Shows a schematic circuit connection diagram of a flight control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As Figure 3 shown, after the main flight control computer FCM uniformly calculates control instructions, it sends them to each secondary flight control computer ACE respectively. The ACE further transmits the instructions to the remote electronic units ( Figure 3 REU1 and REU2 in it) it controls. Local position closed-loop control of the actuator is achieved through the remote electronic unit to drive the control surface. According to the redundancy allocation, multiple actuators of the same control surface are controlled by different remote electronic units, and each remote electronic unit receives control signals from different secondary flight control computers.

[0035] In addition, it can be seen that the remote electronic unit ( Figure 3 REU1 in it) of the present disclosure is also cross-linked with the adjacent remote electronic unit (REU2) to achieve coordinated control between multiple actuators. In addition, the remote electronic unit REU1 also collects the control surface position through the control surface position sensor and monitors the control surface position status to prevent non-instructional movement after the actuator sensor is disconnected. Thus, in the method of the present disclosure, if the flight control computer degrades, the remote electronic unit still has control loop and control surface level functions.

[0036] It will be understood that although Figure 3 only shows that the remote electronic unit REU1 collects the control surface position through the control surface position sensor, in the preferred embodiment, the remote electronic unit REU2 can also collect the control surface position through the control surface position sensor, which will not be elaborated here.

[0037] Thus, the solution of the present disclosure has various advantages. For example, by adding monitoring of the control surface position in the remote electronic unit, the accuracy of detecting the disconnection of the actuator LVDT is improved, and the situation of cutting off the entire control surface due to a single actuator failure is avoided, ensuring the availability of the control surface and the remaining configurable redundancy of flight control; by distributing functions such as LVDT disconnection monitoring originally performed by the traditional flight control computer to the remote electronic unit, the complexity of the flight control computer equipment is simplified, the system function no longer depends on a single device, and the failure of the device is not easily spread to affect the entire system; since the corresponding monitoring function is implemented in the remote electronic unit, the remote electronic unit can sample signals at a higher sampling frequency (such as 960Hz), so that when detecting high-frequency oscillation signals, the phenomenon of wave peaks and wave valleys can still be accurately collected. Compared with the monitoring function implemented in the flight control computer, the monitoring ability in the full frequency band is significantly improved, and more accurate and rapid fault capture and a wider monitoring frequency coverage can be achieved; in the method of the present disclosure, if the flight control computer degrades, the remote electronic unit still has control loop and control surface level functions; the method of the present disclosure can be implemented using the original design of the remote electronic unit without changing the original interface, and has good applicability; and so on.

[0038] The detailed description set forth below in connection with the accompanying drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details.

[0039] Reference Figure 4 , which shows a flowchart of a distributed control method 400 for a flight control actuation system performed by a remote electronic unit according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0040] As Figure 4 shown, method 400 may include, at block 410, receiving first flap position information of a flap from a flap position sensor mounted to the flap. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the flap position sensor may be mounted on the flap to directly provide flap position information to the remote electronic unit. In this embodiment, the remote electronic unit and the flap position sensor may be connected in a wired manner. In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the flap position sensor may be connected to all remote electronic units associated with the flap and provide flap position information to each of these remote electronic units. In an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure, the flap position sensor may be connected to only one of the remote electronic units associated with the flap, and the remote electronic unit may forward the flap position information from the flap position sensor to other remote electronic units.

[0041] Continuing to refer Figure 4 , method 400 may include, at block 420, receiving second flap position information of the flap from a first actuator of the flap. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, as in the prior art, the remote electronic unit may also receive flap position information of the flap from the actuator of the flap. It will be understood that in this embodiment, the first actuator is controlled by the remote electronic unit that executes method 400, i.e., is connected to the remote electronic unit that executes method 400.

[0042] At block 430, method 400 may include receiving third flap position information of the flap from a second remote electronic unit. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the remote electronic units are no longer isolated from each other but are interconnected, whereby they can coordinate with each other to exchange flap position information. Thus, in a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the third flap position information is transmitted through a direct communication link between the remote electronic unit and the second remote electronic unit.

[0043] It will be understood that the remote electronic unit executing method 400 and the second remote electronic unit are jointly used to control the control surface. In this embodiment, the third control surface position information is received by the second remote electronic unit from the second actuator of the control surface, and the second actuator is controlled by the second remote electronic unit to manipulate the control surface. In the present disclosure, the second remote electronic unit and the remote electronic unit executing method 400 may be referred to as "adjacent remote electronic units" of each other.

[0044] Continuing to refer Figure 4 , method 400 may include, at block 440, detecting whether a LVDT disconnection fault has occurred in the first actuator based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information.

[0045] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, detecting whether a LVDT disconnection fault has occurred in the first actuator based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information may include detecting that a LVDT disconnection fault has occurred in the first actuator when it is determined that the differences between the second control surface position information and the first control surface position information and between the second control surface position information and the third control surface position information both exceed a threshold, and the difference between the first control surface position information and the third control surface position information does not exceed the threshold. In other words, when the control surface position information from the first actuator deviates from the control surface position information from the control surface position sensor and the control surface position information from the second remote electronic unit (i.e., from the second actuator), it can be considered that a LVDT disconnection fault has occurred in the first actuator. In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the threshold may be fixed or settable by the user.

[0046] At block 450, method 400 may include cutting off the first actuator when it is detected that a LVDT disconnection fault has occurred in the first actuator. Thus, method 400 of the present disclosure can accurately detect which actuator has a fault and only cut off the corresponding actuator circuit, but still retain the other actuator circuit that has not failed, rather than cutting off the entire control surface, so that the control surface manipulation function can still be maintained, the maneuverability of the control surface is maintained, and a serious degradation of the aircraft performance is avoided.

[0047] In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, method 400 may further include sending second control surface position information to a second remote electronic unit. In this embodiment, the second remote electronic unit also executes the method of the present disclosure, such as method 400. Further according to this embodiment, in the case where the second remote electronic unit is not connected to the control surface position sensor, method 400 may further include sending first control surface position information to the second remote electronic unit for the second remote electronic unit to execute the method of the present disclosure (such as method 400). Thus, in a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the second control surface position information is also transmitted through a direct communication link between the remote electronic unit and the second remote electronic unit.

[0048] In a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the method of the present disclosure may further include a force dispute monitoring function. Thus, method 400 may optionally further include receiving first pressure sensing information of the control surface from a first actuator; receiving second pressure sensing information of the control surface from a second remote electronic unit, where the second pressure sensing information is received by the second remote electronic unit from a second actuator; and determining whether a force dispute occurs on the control surface based on the first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information. Further according to this embodiment, the first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information are sampled at a sampling frequency of 960 Hz, which enables accurate acquisition of the peak and valley phenomena when detecting high-frequency oscillation signals. Compared with the existing force dispute monitoring function implemented in the flight control computer, this significantly improves the monitoring ability in the entire frequency band, enables more accurate and rapid fault capture, and has a wider monitoring frequency coverage.

[0049] Reference Figure 5 , which shows a schematic diagram of a remote electronic unit 500 of a flight control actuation system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] As Figure 5 shown, the remote electronic unit 500 may include a signal acquisition interface 501 and a controller 503. It will be understood that although Figure 5 the remote electronic unit 500 is shown as only including the above two components in

[0051] because these two components are components related to the disclosed technical solution, the remote electronic unit 500 may include any other suitable components, such as a power supply module for supplying power to each component of the remote electronic unit 500, a bus interface module for data interaction with the flight control computer, etc., which will not be elaborated herein. Figure 5 the control surface position sensor (

[0052] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the signal acquisition interface 501 may further include an actuator interface 5013. In this embodiment, the actuator interface 5013 is configured to dock with an actuator ( Figure 5 not shown in the figure) to acquire the second rudder surface position information.

[0053] In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the signal acquisition interface 501 may further include a unit communication interface 5015. In this embodiment, the unit communication interface 5015 is configured to dock with another remote electronic unit ( Figure 5 not shown in the figure) to acquire the third rudder surface position information. In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, the unit communication interface 5015 may be in any suitable form, such as a serial interface.

[0054] It will be understood that the signal acquisition interface 501 may further include any other suitable interfaces, such as a bus interface for data interaction with the flight control computer, etc., which will not be elaborated herein.

[0055] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the controller 503 may be configured to: detect whether an LVDT disconnection fault occurs in the actuator based on the first rudder surface position information, the second rudder surface position information, and the third rudder surface position information; and cut off the actuator in the case where it is detected that an LVDT disconnection fault occurs in the actuator. It will be understood that in this embodiment, the actuator is an actuator associated with the remote electronic unit 500 and acting on the rudder surface, that is, the actuator is controlled by the remote electronic unit 500 to manipulate the rudder surface.

[0056] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of an aircraft 600 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the aircraft 600 may include a remote electronic unit according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure, such as the remote electronic unit 500 combined with Figure 5 the remote electronic unit described above.

[0057] Thus, based on a distributed flight control actuation system, the present disclosure uses a remote electronic unit to, on the one hand, supply power to, excite, and monitor the rudder surface position sensor, and on the other hand, control the actuator according to the instructions of the flight control computer, while monitoring the actuator state and feeding it back to the flight control computer, thereby realizing the control and monitoring of the actuation loop and the rudder surface.

[0058] In the technical solution of the present disclosure, the remote electronic units of the same control surface communicate with each other through a unit communication interface (such as a serial port) to achieve information synchronization of different control loops of the same control surface. The remote electronic unit monitors the status of a single actuator controlled by it, including the EHSV control signal of the actuator electro-hydraulic servo valve, the excitation and feedback signals of the EHSV displacement sensor, the excitation and feedback signals of the actuator cylinder displacement sensor, the excitation and feedback signals of the pressure sensor, the control signal of the mode switching solenoid valve, etc. Each remote electronic unit can excite the control surface position sensor according to the specified priority and read the control surface position signal respectively.

[0059] The technical solution of the present disclosure can implement functions such as force dispute monitoring and actuator LVDT disconnection monitoring at the local level of the control surface loop through the remote electronic unit of the control surface loop level. Specifically, when the difference between the piston position of a single actuator and the position of the control surface sensor exceeds the threshold, the remote electronic unit considers that an actuator LVDT disconnection fault has occurred, triggers the corresponding monitor and cuts off the single faulty actuator loop; each module of the remote electronic unit monitors the pressure difference between the two chambers of the actuators of itself and adjacent modules to detect the force disputes output by different actuators of the same control surface.

[0060] The above specific embodiments include references to the accompanying drawings, which form part of the specific embodiments. The drawings illustrate specific embodiments that can be practiced by way of illustration. Such embodiments are also referred to herein as "examples". Such examples may include elements other than those shown or described. However, examples including the elements shown or described are also contemplated. In addition, examples using any combination or arrangement of the elements shown or described, or referring to the specific examples shown or described herein (or one or more aspects thereof), or referring to other examples shown or described herein (or one or more aspects thereof) are also contemplated.

[0061] In the appended claims, the terms "comprising" and "including" are open-ended, that is, a system, device, article, or process that includes elements other than those recited after such terms is still considered to fall within the scope of that claim. In addition, in the appended claims, the terms "first", "second", "third", etc. are used only as labels and are not intended to indicate a numerical order of their objects.

[0062] In addition, the order of operations illustrated in this specification is exemplary. In alternative embodiments, the operations may be performed in a different order than shown in the drawings, and the operations may be combined into a single operation or split into more operations.

[0063] The foregoing description is intended to be illustrative, not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in conjunction with other embodiments. Other embodiments may be used, for example, by those of ordinary skill in the art after reviewing the foregoing description. The abstract allows the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. The abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Further, in the foregoing Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together in order to streamline the disclosure. However, the claims may not recite every feature disclosed herein, as an embodiment may represent a subset of the features. Moreover, an embodiment may include fewer features than those disclosed in a particular example. Accordingly, the appended claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the embodiments disclosed herein should be determined with reference to the appended claims and the full scope of equivalents to such claims.

Claims

1. A method for distributed control of a flight control actuation system executed by a first remote electronic unit, comprising: receiving first rudder surface position information of the rudder surface from a rudder surface position sensor installed on the rudder surface; receiving second control surface position information of the control surface from a first actuator of the control surface, wherein the first actuator is controlled by the first remote electronic unit; receiving third control surface position information of the control surface from a second remote electronic unit, wherein the third control surface position information is received by the second remote electronic unit from a second actuator of the control surface, and the second actuator is controlled by the second remote electronic unit; Detecting whether an LVDT disengagement failure occurs in the first actuator based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information; as well as When an LVDT disconnection failure of the first actuator is detected, the first actuator is cut off.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method also includes transmitting the second control surface position information to the second remote electronic unit.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method also includes transmitting the first control surface position information to the second remote electronic unit.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The control surface position sensor is also connected to the second remote electronic unit.

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The second control surface position information and the third control surface position information are transmitted via a direct communication link between the first remote electronic unit and the second remote electronic unit.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Detecting whether an LVDT disconnection fault occurs in the first actuator based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information includes: When it is determined that the difference between the second rudder surface position information and the first rudder surface position information and the difference between the second rudder surface position information and the third rudder surface position information both exceed a threshold, and the difference between the first rudder surface position information and the third rudder surface position information does not exceed the threshold, an LVDT disengagement failure of the first actuator is detected.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The threshold may be fixed or settable by the user.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Also includes: receiving first pressure sensing information of the control surface from the first actuator; receiving second pressure sensing information of the control surface from the second remote electronic unit, wherein the second pressure sensing information is received by the second remote electronic unit from the second actuator; as well as Whether a force conflict occurs on the control surface is determined based on the first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first pressure sensing information and the second pressure sensing information are sampled at a sampling frequency of 960 Hz.

10. A remote electronic unit for a flight control actuation system, comprising: A signal acquisition interface, the signal acquisition interface comprising: A rudder surface position sensor interface, wherein the rudder surface position sensor interface is configured to interface with a rudder surface position sensor to collect first rudder surface position information; an actuator interface, the actuator interface being configured to interface with the actuator to collect second control surface position information; and a unit communication interface configured to interface with another remote electronic unit to collect third control surface position information; and A controller, the controller being configured to: detecting whether an LVDT disengagement failure occurs in the actuator based on the first control surface position information, the second control surface position information, and the third control surface position information; and In the event that an LVDT disconnection failure of the actuator is detected, the actuator is cut off.

11. An aircraft comprising a remote electronic unit according to claim 10.

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