Redundant Flight Control System for UAVs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flight control systems for unmanned aerial vehicles face challenges in achieving redundancy while maintaining high control accuracy, as mounting multiple flight control units on the vehicle is cumbersome and alternative configurations that rely on ground-based units can reduce control accuracy due to data link limitations.
Innovation Solution
A flight control system where the unmanned aerial vehicle and ground facility each have flight control units, with one unit on the vehicle serving as the main unit and others as backups, allowing for seamless switching in case of malfunctions, utilizing signal transmission and reception units to compare computation results and ensure continuous accurate flight control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple flight control units are mounted in the unmanned aerial vehicle to achieve redundancy, then flight control reliability is improved, but weight and mounting space increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The flight control system is segmented into two parts: a main flight control unit mounted in the unmanned aerial vehicle and a backup flight control unit located in the ground facility. This segmentation allows redundancy to be achieved without mounting all control units on the vehicle, thereby reducing weight and mounting space requirements while maintaining flight control reliability through the backup unit available at the ground facility.
2Reliability
If flight control is performed by transmitting sensor output signals to the ground facility for processing, then redundancy is achieved with reduced vehicle weight, but control accuracy decreases due to data link limitations
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between two operational modes: (1) The main flight control unit on the vehicle performs real-time flight control using sensor output signals for high accuracy when the data link is reliable; (2) The backup flight control unit at the ground facility takes over when the main unit malfunctions, receiving sensor data via the data link. This dynamic switching mechanism ensures both high control accuracy during normal operation and redundancy capability when needed, resolving the contradiction between accuracy and reliability.
3Reliability
If the backup flight control unit is activated when the main unit malfunctions, then flight control reliability is maintained, but control accuracy may be reduced due to data link delays
Solution Approach 1:
The backup flight control unit at the ground facility is pre-configured with the capability to process sensor output signals and generate control commands. When the main flight control unit malfunctions, the backup unit can immediately take over without requiring time-consuming initialization or configuration, as it is already prepared to perform flight control functions. This preliminary preparation minimizes the time loss during the transition and ensures continuous flight control capability is maintained.
Data Source
AI summary
A flight control system controls flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle by control signals of the unmanned aerial vehicle itself and from a ground facility. The unmanned aerial vehicle and the ground facility are each provided with at least one flight control unit (FCU) capable of controlling driving of an airframe actuator based on a sensor output signal from an airframe sensor. The at least one FCU on the unmanned aerial vehicle and the at least one FCU of the ground facility constitute a redundant system for flight control function. In the redundant system one of the at least one FCU on the unmanned aerial vehicle serves as a main unit. In the case where a malfunction has occurred in an FCU that performs flight control on the unmanned aerial vehicle, the ground facility is capable of causing another FCU to take over flight control function from the FCU.