Aircraft Control System Software Redundancy via Noise Injection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft flight control systems face increased development costs due to the requirement of multiple control software to ensure redundancy against software bugs, and there is a need to maintain redundancy using the same control software effectively.
Innovation Solution
An aircraft control system with a noise generator that superimposes different random noises on flight specification numerical values output from a sensor, ensuring that even if bugs occur, they do not simultaneously affect both flight computers running the same control software, thereby maintaining redundancy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple control software are used to ensure redundancy against software bugs, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and development cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of multiple independent control software into a single control software instance. By introducing a noise generator that adds random noise to sensor signals, the system ensures that multiple flight computers running the same software receive different input data, thereby achieving software redundancy without requiring multiple software copies. This reduces development complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the input parameters (sensor signals) by adding random noise through a noise generator. This parameter modification ensures that even though the control software is identical across multiple flight computers, the processing results differ due to the noisy input signals, thereby preventing simultaneous software failures and achieving redundancy without increasing software complexity.
2Reliability
If multiple control software are used to ensure redundancy, then reliability is improved, but development cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the redundancy function into the hardware layer (noise generator) rather than requiring multiple software versions. This approach reduces development costs by eliminating the need to develop, test, and maintain multiple software configurations, while still achieving the reliability goal through hardware-based signal differentiation.
3Device complexity
If identical control software is used in multiple flight computers, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability against simultaneous software bugs decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a noise generator as an intermediary component between the sensor and the flight computers. This intermediary adds random noise to the sensor signals, ensuring that identical control software running on multiple flight computers processes different input data. This mediator prevents simultaneous software failures by differentiating the input signals while keeping the software identical.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the input parameters by adding random noise to sensor signals before they reach the flight computers. This parameter change ensures that identical control software produces different outputs across multiple flight computers, thereby maintaining reliability against software bugs while keeping the software configuration simple and unified.
Data Source
AI summary
An aircraft control system has a flight specification acquisition sensor for acquiring flight specifications of an aircraft and outputting the respective numerical values, and a plurality of flight computers, each having the same control software and performing airframe control based on the flight specification numerical values, thereby constituting a redundant system of flight control functions. Further, the control system includes a noise generator for the plurality of flight computers, which generates a plurality of noises different from each other, and the plurality of noises are individually superimposed on the numerical value of one flight specification output from the flight specification acquisition sensor to generate a plurality of new flight specification numerical values different from each other which are then output to the plurality of flight computers. This configuration ensures redundancy of the aircraft control software against potential bugs using the same control software.