Fly-By-Wire Sensor Voting for Reliable eVTOL Flight Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
In electric aircraft, such as eVTOLs, maintaining aircraft integrity during malfunctions or failures is crucial to ensure safety, and existing systems lack effective methods for assessing maneuverability and propulsor output to prevent unsafe conditions.
Innovation Solution
A fly-by-wire flight control system that includes sensors communicatively connected to pilot controls, a flight controller performing a voting algorithm to determine allowed sensors and generate control surface commands, ensuring accurate and reliable aircraft maneuvers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a voting algorithm is implemented to filter faulty sensor data, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flight control system is segmented into multiple independent sensor channels, each processing pilot input separately. The voting algorithm then compares outputs from these segmented channels to identify and filter faulty data, improving reliability without requiring complete system redesign
Solution Approach 2:
The voting algorithm performs preliminary validation of sensor data before it reaches the control actuation stage. By pre-filtering faulty readings through the voting mechanism, the system prevents erroneous commands from being executed, thereby improving safety without adding complex post-processing mechanisms
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensors are used to perform voting algorithm, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each sensor in the array is assigned a specific detection function with optimized characteristics for its local role. The voting algorithm then aggregates these specialized measurements, allowing each sensor to maintain simple design while the collective system achieves high measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple sensor readings are merged through the voting algorithm to produce a single consolidated pilot input command. This merging process combines the precision benefits of multiple measurements while presenting a unified, simplified interface to the rest of the control system
Data Source
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AI summary
In an aspect a system for fly-by-wire flight control configured for use in electric aircraft includes at least a sensor, wherein the sensor is communicatively connected a pilot control and configured to detect a pilot input from the pilot control and generate, as a function of the pilot input, command datum. A system includes a flight controller, the flight controller including a computing device and configured to perform a voting algorithm, wherein performing the voting algorithm includes determining that the sensor is an allowed sensor, wherein determining that the sensor is an allowed sensor includes determining that the command datum is an active datum, determining the command datum is an admissible datum, generating, as a function of the command datum and the allowed sensor, a control surface datum wherein the control surface datum is correlated to the pilot input.