Inertial Reference Unit Integrity Check via Dual-Channel Comparison
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current avionics systems with electric flight controls face limitations in accurately and quickly identifying failures or drifts in primary inertial reference units, leading to potential common-mode failures and reduced availability of primary inertial information for normal flight control modes, without increasing the complexity, weight, or cost of the system.
Innovation Solution
An inertial reference unit comprising a high-performance measurement channel and a lower-performance measurement channel, with an integrity check function that synchronizes and compares data to detect failures or drifts, using vertical information to refine the integrity check and prevent direct mode switching, allowing self-monitoring and reduced bulk and weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a standby inertial reference unit is added to provide redundancy, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the integrity monitoring function from a separate standby unit and integrates it into the primary unit itself. The primary unit includes a second, lower-performance measurement channel that serves solely for integrity checking, eliminating the need for a complete standby unit while maintaining redundancy capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the measurement channel within the primary unit. The second measurement channel replicates the basic measurement functionality at a lower performance level, enabling integrity comparison without requiring a full standby system.
2Reliability
If a standby inertial reference unit is added to provide redundancy, then reliability is improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the integrity monitoring function from a separate standby unit and integrates it into the primary unit itself. The primary unit includes a second, lower-performance measurement channel that serves solely for integrity checking, eliminating the need for a complete standby unit while maintaining redundancy capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the measurement channel within the primary unit. The second measurement channel replicates the basic measurement functionality at a lower performance level, enabling integrity comparison without requiring a full standby system.
3Device complexity
If only one high-performance measurement channel is used, then device complexity is reduced, but the ability to detect failures quickly deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different performance levels to different parts of the system. The first measurement channel uses high-performance sensors for primary navigation, while the second measurement channel uses lower-performance sensors specifically for integrity monitoring, optimizing each component for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the measurement channel within the primary unit. The second measurement channel replicates the basic measurement functionality at a lower performance level, enabling integrity comparison without requiring a full standby system.
4Reliability
If multiple high-performance measurement channels are used for redundancy, then reliability is improved, but weight and bulk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different performance levels to different parts of the system. The first measurement channel uses high-performance sensors for primary navigation, while the second measurement channel uses lower-performance sensors specifically for integrity monitoring, optimizing each component for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the measurement channel within the primary unit. The second measurement channel replicates the basic measurement functionality at a lower performance level, enabling integrity comparison without requiring a full standby system.
Data Source
AI summary
An inertial reference unit includes a first measurement channel that includes a first high-performance inertial measurement unit for measuring specific forces and angular velocities, a first computing unit able to compute pure inertial data based on the measurements of the first measurement unit; a second measurement channel that includes a second inertial measurement unit of performance lower than the first inertial measurement unit for measuring specific forces and angular velocities; a second computing unit able to compute pure inertial data based on the measurements of the second measurement unit; an integrity check function able to implement a method for checking the integrity of the data of the first measurement channel based and the second measurement channel; and a synchronization device for synchronizing the measurements.