Introduction to Flight

Control Systems

Bharath Seshadri
Honeywell, Bangalore
Agenda

Principles of Flight
Axes system

Flight Control System Design

System considerations

Software considerations
Terminology - Mach
Number
Mach =>
Speed of the Body
Speed of sound

Low Subsonic
High Subsonic
Hypersonic

0 0.3 0.8 1.2 5

Supersonic
Transonic
How does an aircraft
fly?
Aircraft - A view
 Forces acting on an Aircraft

To overcome the aircrafts own weight--that is, the force of gravity, it is essential to
create an upward force called lift

That's what an airplane's wings are meant for

Wings generate lift
To create lift, forward motion is required by overcoming the
resistance of the air--a force called drag.

That's what an airplane's engines are for

Engines produce a force called thrust
Airplane Axes - Naming
convention
Moments acting on an
Aircraft
Pitching Moment
Moment about Lateral axis

Yawing Moment
Moment about Vertical or Normal axis

Rolling Moment
Moment about Longitudinal axis
Moments acting on an
Aircraft
Control of vehicles
There are many types of vehicles used to transport people and objects from
place to place on Earth. How are these vehicles guided to a destination?
For Car :- Turning the steering wheel changes a car's direction.
For Boat :- The rudder is used to control the direction of a boat.
For Bicycle :- A bicycle is controlled by turning the handle bars and shifting
the rider's weight.
For most land and sea vehicles, directional controls accomplished by
moving the front end right or left. Movement in this one axis of rotation or
direction is called yaw.
Flying an airplane requires control of three axes of rotation or movement.
The nose of the plane can be moved right and left (yaw), rotated up and
down (pitch) and the fuselage can be rolled left and right (roll).
A pilot uses the control wheel or stick inside the airplane to move control
surfaces on the wings and tail of the plane
These control surfaces turn the airplane by varying the forces of lift.
Boeing-777-200
F-16 C/D Cockpit
A340 Cockpit
A320 FCS - Cockpit
 Mechanical Flight Controls

On aircraft of the A300 and A310 type, the pilot commands are transmitted to
the servo-controls by an arrangement of mechanical components (rods,
cables, pulleys, etc.). In addition, specific computers and actuators driving
the mechanical linkages restore the pilot feels on the controls and transmit
the autopilot commands
 Electrical Flight Controls -
FBW

The term fly-by-wire has been adopted to describe the use of electrical
rather than mechanical signaling of the pilots commands to the flying
control actuators. One can imagine a basic form of fly-by-wire in which
an airplane retained conventional pilots control columns and wheels,
hydraulic actuators (but electrically controlled), and artificial feel as
experienced in the 1970s with the Concorde program. The fly-by-wire
system would simply provide electrical signals to the control actuators
that were directly proportional to the angular displacement of the
pilots controls, without any form of enhancement.
Autopilot
Basic Function of autopilot is to control the flight of the aircraft
and maintain it on a predetermined path in space without any
action being required by the pilot, once the pilot has selected
the appropriate control mode of the autopilot.
The autopilot can thus relieve the pilot from the fatigue and
tedium of having to maintain continuous control of aircrafts
flight path on a long duration flight.
A well designed autopilot, properly integrated with FCS can
achieve a faster response and maintain a more precise flight
path than the pilot.
Eg. Auto landing

In Military strike aircraft autopilot in conjunction with Terrain

Following guidance can provide can provide all weather auto
TF capability, enabling the ac to fly at high speed (600kts)
automatically follow the terrain profile to stay below the radar
horizon of enemy radars.
 Autopilot Loop
Flight
Path
Commande Deviation
+ Flight
d Flight Flight
Autopilot Control
Path Path
Loop
- Kinematic
s
Sensors
Autopilot guidance function in outer loop- generates commands for FCS
in inner loop
These are generally attitude commands which operate the aircrafts
control surfaces through a closed loop control system so that the aircraft
rotates about the pitch and roll axes until the measured pitch and bank
angles are equal to the commanded values. The changes in the aircraft
attitude then cause the flight path to change through flight path
kinematics.
AFCS Scope and
Limited Authority Digital autopilot for three axis control of the
Requirements

airplane
Flight director to provide the guidance up to Cat II precision
approach phase
Vertical, lateral and coupled modes of operation
Automatic Pitch trim
Manual Pitch trim
Smooth engagement, disengagement and mode transition of
autopilot without transients leading to hazardous conditions
Annunciation of warning and status to ACMPS,CWP and EFIS
Crew Interface via Autopilot Control and Mode Select Panel,
Control wheel
Positive and immediate disengagement facility in case of an
emergency
Power inputs meeting DO-160D section 16, category B
Proven and Airworthy Hardware and servo, meeting DO-160D
requirements
Fail safe architecture
Scalable and up-gradable to host additional functions
AFCS in SARAS
 AFCS
Mode
Modes of operation
Definition
Vertical Modes
PAH Provides guidance to maintain a pilot selected pitch attitude reference.
ALT Provides guidance to maintain a barometric altitude reference.
ALTSEL Provides guidance to capture and level off at a pre-selected altitude.
SPD Provides guidance to track and attain pilot selected speed reference.
VS Provides guidance to track a pilot selected vertical speed reference.
GS Provides guidance to capture and track the Glideslope signal for approach.
Lateral Modes
RAH Provides guidance to maintain a roll attitude reference.
HDG Provides guidance to capture and track a pilot selected heading reference.
HH Provides guidance to maintain the fixed heading reference.
NAV (VOR) Provides guidance to capture and track the VOR signal for cruise.
APPR (LOC) Provides guidance to capture and track the front course localizer signal.
BC Provides guidance to capture and track the back course localizer signal.
AFCS Control loop
 AFCS Interfaces

Grey shaded are AFCS components

Development Lifecycle:
IPDS
 AFCS HW components physical view

KMC 9200 - Autopilot Control/Mode Select Panel

A429
Single Card
(ACMSP) (.8 In)

ARINC,
DISCRETE
OTHER ANALOG
AIRCARFT
SYSTEMS
ADCU,AHRS,
RADALT,DME, t e
SWS c re
s
, Di
N g
Dual GIO
CA alo Card (1.6 In)

An
MAU: Hosts following set of modules per lane
te

AIOP Module (combines the

cr e

Actuator IO module combined

Dis

with a PROC module)

Generic I/O Module

SVO-65 Pitch Trim Network Interface Module (NIC)

Servo Power Supply

SM1000 SERVO
Aileron, Elevator and Rudder
AFCS Application on AIOP
card
Data Flow Diagram
Application Launch
Sequence
Execution Rates of AFCS Application
Processes
AFCS Application Software
Partitioning
Partitioning has been decided based on following
factors
Safety Directed design
Modular Architecture
Allows for upgrading, changing of specific modules to suit different
specifications.
Provides Scalability
Restricts the changes to a module
Lower regression
Reusability
Control and Data Coupling.
Easier to maintain
AFCS Application
Functional View
Control Law Design

Knowledge of control systems essential

Linearize the non-linear system
Understand aircraft equations of motion
Understand the necessity of control and what
parameters to control
Ultimate objective is to maintain aircraft in
equilibrium under different modes
Sample Control Law
Books for Reference
Introduction to Flight,
John Anderson Jr. , McGraw-Hill, 3rd ed, 1989

Fundamentals of Flight
Shevell, Richard S., Prentice Hall, 2nd Edition, 1989

Aerodynamics for Engineers

Bertin, John J. and Smith, Michael L., Prentice Hall, 3rd edition,

1998
Aircraft Performance, Stability and Control
Perkins and Hage