Flight Control Computer Consolidation for Redundant Command Pairs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern aircraft flight control systems require redundant primary flight control computers to compute flight orders, leading to computational overload due to the need for each computer to compute consolidated flight parameters and orders twice, once for each virtual command/monitor pair, resulting in increased computational demands.
Innovation Solution
A flight control system with at least four primary computers that acquire and consolidate flight parameters using a common algorithm, allowing each computer to compute a flight order once based on a shared consolidated value, reducing computational load by eliminating the need for duplicate calculations across virtual command/monitor pairs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If each primary computer computes consolidated flight parameters and flight orders separately for each virtual command/monitor pair, then the system maintains redundancy and reliability through multiple computations, but the computational load on each primary computer increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the computation of consolidated flight parameters across all virtual command/monitor pairs into a single computation performed by each primary computer. Instead of computing consolidated parameters separately for each pair, the system computes them once and reuses the results, thereby reducing computational load while maintaining system redundancy through the distributed architecture of multiple primary computers
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary computation of consolidated flight parameters before they are needed for flight order generation. By pre-computing and storing consolidated parameters, the system avoids redundant calculations when multiple virtual command/monitor pairs require the same parameters, thus reducing overall computational burden while ensuring data availability for reliability checks
2Reliability
If each primary computer performs duplicate computations for multiple virtual command/monitor pairs, then comprehensive monitoring and command coverage is achieved, but system efficiency decreases due to redundant calculations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the computation tasks across multiple virtual command/monitor pairs by implementing a unified computation mechanism for consolidated flight parameters. Each primary computer performs the consolidation computation once and makes the results available to all relevant virtual pairs, eliminating redundant calculations while ensuring that all command and monitor functions have access to the necessary data for comprehensive coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the computed consolidated flight parameters universally available to all virtual command/monitor pairs through a shared data structure. This universal computation result serves multiple functions simultaneously - it supports command generation, monitoring, and validation across all virtual pairs, thereby improving system efficiency without compromising the comprehensive command coverage provided by the redundant architecture
Data Source
AI summary
An aircraft flight control system comprises a set of primary computers, each configured to compute a flight order dependent on at least one aircraft flight parameter and intended for an aircraft control surface actuator remote controller. Each computer participates in command mode within a first virtual command/monitor pair and in monitor mode within a second virtual command/monitor pair. Each computer determines a consolidated flight parameter value as a function of a flight parameter value acquired by this computer and of flight parameter values received from the other computers, using a consolidation algorithm commonly used by all primary computers to each determine a consolidated flight parameter value, and compute the intended flight order for the remote controller as a function of the consolidated flight parameter value, according to a unique computation whose result is used by the computer both when acting in command mode and when acting in monitor mode.