Model-Based Approaches for Fast and Robust Fault Detection in an Aircraft Control Surface Servo Loop: From Theory to Flight Tests [Applications of Control]

摘要

Many innovative solutions have been developed by the aeronautical sector toward achieving the future ?sustainable? aircraft that will be cleaner, quieter, smarter, and more affordable. Weight reduction is one of the most significant contributors to sustainability, as it improves aircraft performance (fuel consumption, noise, range) and consequently decreases its environmental footprint. Since the 1980s, the electrical flight controls system (EFCS), also known as fly-by-wire (FBW), introduced by Airbus on civilian aircraft [1], [2], has been a weight-saving technology in which the conventional heavy mechanical linkages between the pilot?s inputs and the control surface actuators were replaced by lighter electrical signal wires and digital flight control computers (FCCs). More recently, the electro-hydrostatic actuators introduced on the A380 [3] allowed the replacement of three conventional hydraulic circuits by two hydraulic circuits plus two electric layouts, which resulted in a weight savings of about 1 ton of mass for the aircraft. For future aircraft, the next important issue is the structural design optimization, which will result in lighter, and therefore greener, aircraft. However, this design improvement leads to increased interactions between EFCS failures and structural loads. Therefore, structural optimization must be properly accompanied by advanced fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) techniques for limiting the impacts of flight control system failures. Highlighting the link between aircraft sustainability and fault detection, it can be demonstrated that improving the performance of FDD allows designers to further optimize the aircraft structural design, which in turn leads to further weight reduction.