Aircraft Braking Architecture with Analog Backup Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed braking system architectures for aircraft are prone to failures due to vulnerabilities in digital communication infrastructure, leading to potential loss of braking capacity.
Innovation Solution
A braking system architecture that incorporates a combination of digital and analog communication links, allowing for nominal and degraded power supply modes, ensuring continued braking functionality even in the event of digital communication failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a digital communication network is used for controlling braking actuators, then the device complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but the reliability deteriorates due to potential failures in common digital infrastructure elements
Solution Approach 1:
The control architecture is segmented into two independent communication pathways: a digital communication network for normal operation and an analog wired connection for backup. This segmentation allows the system to maintain functionality by switching to the analog pathway if the digital network fails, thereby resolving the contradiction between reduced complexity and maintained reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the communication parameter from purely digital to a hybrid digital-analog configuration. The analog wired connection provides a different signal transmission mode that is immune to digital network failures, thus improving reliability while maintaining acceptable device complexity through the use of standard analog communication protocols.
2Reliability
If a centralized braking system architecture with wired connections is used, then the reliability is improved through direct connections, but the device complexity and weight increase due to significant amounts of wired connections
Solution Approach 1:
The wired connection system is segmented and reserved only for emergency backup control, while the digital communication network handles normal operational control. This segmentation reduces the overall complexity of wired connections while maintaining reliability through the availability of the analog pathway when needed.
3Device complexity
If a centralized braking system architecture is used, then the control functionality is simplified, but the weight increases due to significant mass of wired connections
Solution Approach 1:
The control functions are segmented between digital and analog pathways, with the analog wired connection serving only as a backup. This reduces the overall weight of wired connections compared to a fully centralized analog system, while maintaining architectural simplicity through the use of modern digital control for primary operations.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an architecture of a braking system for aircraft (1000), comprising a brake (20); an electromechanical actuator (30) associated with a power module (33) connected to a digital communication module (34) by a first control module (35); a controller (50) comprising a power supply unit (51) intended to supply the power module (33) with a supply voltage (Vc) and a control unit (52) connected to a digital communication unit in order to transmit a digital command signal to the digital communication module (34). The control unit (52) is also connected to the control module (35) by an analogue wire link (60) so as to transmit to same a first analogue braking command from which the first control module (33) controls the power module (33) in order to produce a degraded supply current of the actuator.