Floor-Mounted Yaw Pedals for Lower Lumbar Loading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional rotorcraft pedals elevate the pilot's feet during yaw control, leading to increased lumbar loading and discomfort, especially during crashes, due to the angled foot position.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of floor-mounted, rocker-style pedals that allow vertical movement of the feet to control yaw, maintaining the pilot's lower legs in a generally vertical position, with optional assistance from linkage and sensor systems to prevent conflicting inputs and enhance control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional elevated pedals are used for yaw control, then yaw control capability is provided, but lumbar loading increases and ergonomics deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional pedal design by mounting pedals to the floor rather than elevating them. This inversion allows the pilot's feet to remain on the floor in a natural position while still providing yaw control capability, thereby reducing lumbar loading and improving ergonomics without sacrificing control functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new spatial dimension for pedal operation by allowing vertical movement of the pedal assembly relative to the floor, rather than requiring forward/backward movement of elevated pedals. This dimensional change enables yaw control while maintaining the pilot's lower legs in a generally vertical position, reducing lumbar loading.
2Ease of operation
If floor-mounted pedals with vertical movement are used, then lumbar loading is reduced and ergonomics improve, but control precision may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates sensors that detect the position and movement of the floor-mounted pedals and provide feedback to the flight control system. This feedback mechanism ensures that vertical pedal movements are accurately translated into precise yaw control commands, maintaining control precision despite the change in pedal mounting and movement direction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the direct mechanical linkage system with sensors and electronic control systems. Instead of mechanical connections between elevated pedals and control surfaces, the system uses sensor detection of pedal position and electronic signal processing to achieve precise yaw control, thereby maintaining precision while improving ergonomics.
3Reliability
If linkage and sensor systems are added to assist floor-mounted pedals, then control precision and conflict prevention are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the linkage and sensor system to serve multiple functions: detecting pedal position, preventing conflicting inputs, and providing feedback for precise control. By making the system multi-functional, the patent reduces the need for separate dedicated components for each function, thereby limiting the increase in overall system complexity while improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor system automatically detects and responds to pedal movements without requiring additional manual input or complex mechanical linkages. The system self-regulates to prevent conflicting inputs by monitoring pedal position and adjusting control signals accordingly, thereby improving reliability while minimizing the complexity increase through automated functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A yaw control system for a rotorcraft featuring a floor mounted pair of pedals configured to measure an up and down motion of a pair of pedals and utilize that up and down motion as a yaw moment control input. The pair of pedals can rock laterally, fore and aft, or vertically. The pair of pedals can be mechanically interconnected to other pairs of pedals or electrically interconnected to duplicate motion across pairs of pedals.