An aircraft brake control algorithm with torque compensation based on RBF neural network

The wheel brake system of an aircraft is the key to ensure its safe landing and rejected takeoff.A wheel’s slip state is determined by the brake torque and ground adhesion torque,both of which have a large degree of uncertainty.It is this nature that brings upon the challenge of obtaining high deceleration rate for aircraft brake control.To overcome the disturbances caused by the above uncertainties,a braking control law is designed,which consists of two parts:runway surface recognition and wheel’s slip state tracking.In runway surface recognition,the identification rules balancing safety and braking efficiency are defined,and the actual identification process is realized through recursive least square method with forgetting factors.In slip state tracking,the LuGre model with parameter adaptation and a brake torque compensation method based on RBF neural network are proposed,and their convergence are proven.The effectiveness of our control law is verified through simulation and ground experiment.Especially in the experiments on the ground inertial test bench,compared to the improved pressure-biased-modulation(PBM)anti-skid algorithm,fewer wheel slips occur,and the average deceleration rate is increased by 5.78%,which makes it a control strategy with potential for engineering applications.

Design of an aircraft autonomous traction taxiing system based on hydraulic secondary control

At present,aircraft taxiing at ground airports needs to be provided with a thrust by the main engine.The taxiing process is inefficient,has high fuel consumption and serious pollution,and is prone to safety risks.In this paper,a new configuration of aircraft autonomous traction taxiing system is proposed based on the principle of hydraulic secondary control,in which a hydraulic motor drive device is installed at the front wheels of the aircraft to drive the wheels to rotate forward or backward.Based on this,autonomous taxiing can be realized without relying on the main engines,thus greatly improving airport operation efficiency.Meanwhile,this paper analyzes the influencing factors of the autonomous traction taxiing process,and investigates the parameter matching design of the new configuration system.Besides,this paper develops the ground principle prototype,designs the aircraft longitudinal bonding force observer and the aircraft wheel disturbance moment observer,and proposes the speed control method of the aircraft front wheel autonomous traction taxiing by considering the ground bonding force saturation characteristics.Finally,the ground taxiing test is conducted,and the results show that the new configuration proposed in this paper presents a new solution for aircraft autonomous traction taxiing.

High-effciency aircraft antiskid brake control algorithm via runway condition identification based on an on-off valve array

The aircraft antiskid braking system is an important hydraulic system for preventing tire bursts and ensuring safe take-off and landing. The brake system adjusts the force applied on the brake discs by controlling the brake pressure. Traditional aircraft antiskid braking systems achieve antiskid performance by controlling the braking pressure with an electrohydraulic servo valve.Because the pilot stage of an electrohydraulic servo valve is easily blocked by carbonized hydraulic oil, the servo valve would become a dangerous weak point for aircraft safety. This paper proposes a new approach that uses an on-off valve array to replace the servo valve for pressure control. Based on this new pressure control component, an efficient antiskid control algorithm that can utilize this discontinuous feature is proposed. Furthermore, the algorithm has the ability to identify the runway circumstances. To overcome the discontinuity in the process of using an on-off valve array, the Filippov framework is introduced. The conditions of convergence of the system are also discussed.The results of the digital simulations and the hardware-in-the-loop(HIL) braking experiments are used to verify the efficiency and stability of the proposed control algorithm. The method also proves that the on-off valve array can replace the servo valve perfectly as a new type of antiskid braking pressure control component.

Analysis of the dynamic performance of an electro-hydrostatic actuator and improvement methods

As a kind of actuation mechanism for power-by-wire(PBW) actuation systems of more/all electrical aircraft, an electro-hydrostatic actuator(EHA) is a highly integrated local hydraulic actuation system. It is a volume control system consisting of a motor, a pump, an actuator, etc.,which has features of high efficiency and reliability. However, the poor dynamic characteristic is one of the main factors restricting its wide application in aircraft. In this paper, the reason for the poor dynamic characteristic of an EHA is revealed from the perspectives of the natural frequency characteristic and the power requirement, respectively. In other words, the insufficiency of the motor output power at a high frequency is the main factor causing the poor dynamic characteristic of the system, and methods which include increasing the maximum output torque of the motor, reducing the rotational inertia of the motor-pump group, and adopting a double-motorpump group configuration are proposed in this paper, by which the dynamic characteristic of the system can be improved. The feasibility of those methods are verified by simulations. Finally, the dynamic characteristic is tested on an EHA prototype, and results show that saturation of the output torque of the motor is the main factor restricting the dynamic characteristic of the EHA system.

A novel integrated self-powered brake system for more electric aircraft

Traditional hydraulic brake systems require a complex system of pipelines between an aircraft engine driven pump（EDP） and brake actuators, which increases the weight of the aircraft and may even cause serious vibration and leakage problems. In order to improve the reliability and safety of more electric aircraft（MEA）, this paper proposes a new integrated self-powered brake system（ISBS） for MEA. It uses a hydraulic pump geared to the main wheel to recover a small part of the kinetic energy of a landing aircraft. The recovered energy then serves as the hydraulic power supply for brake actuators. It does not require additional hydraulic source, thus removing the pipelines between an EDP and brake actuators. In addition, its self-powered characteristic makes it possible to brake as usual even in an emergency situation when the airborne power is lost. This paper introduces the working principle of the ISBS and presents a prototype. The mathematical models of a taxiing aircraft and the ISBS are established. A feedback linearization control algorithm is designed to fulfill the anti-skid control. Simulations are carried out to verify the feasibility of the ISBS, and experiments are conducted on a ground inertia brake test bench. The ISBS presents a good performance and provides a new potential solution in the field of brake systems for MEA.

Ground maneuver for front-wheel drive aircraft via deep reinforcement learning

The maneuvering time on the ground accounts for 10%–30%of their flight time,and it always exceeds 50%for short-haul aircraft when the ground traffic is congested.Aircraft also contribute significantly to emissions,fuel burn,and noise when taxiing on the ground at airports.There is an urgent need to reduce aircraft taxiing time on the ground.However,it is too expensive for airports and aircraft carriers to build and maintain more runways,and it is space-limited to tow the aircraft fast using tractors.Autonomous drive capability is currently the best solution for aircraft,which can save the maneuver time for aircraft.An idea is proposed that the wheels are driven by APU-powered(auxiliary power unit)motors,APU is working on its efficient point;consequently,the emissions,fuel burn,and noise will be reduced significantly.For Front-wheel drive aircraft,the front wheel must provide longitudinal force to tow the plane forward and lateral force to help the aircraft make a turn.Forward traction effects the aircraft’s maximum turning ability,which is difficult to be modeled to guide the controller design.Deep reinforcement learning provides a powerful tool to help us design controllers for black-box models;however,the models of related works are always simplified,fixed,or not easily modified,but that is what we care about most.Only with complex models can the trained controller be intelligent.High-fidelity models that can easily modified are necessary for aircraft ground maneuver controller design.This paper focuses on the maneuvering problem of front-wheel drive aircraft,a high-fidelity aircraft taxiing dynamic model is established,including the 6-DOF airframe,landing gears,and nonlinear tire force model.A deep reinforcement learning based controller was designed to improve the maneuver performance of front-wheel drive aircraft.It is proved that in some conditions,the DRL based controller outperformed conventional look-ahead controllers.

Dynamic thermal coupling modeling and analysis of wet electro-hydrostatic actuator

The electro-hydrostatic actuator(EHA)used in more electric aircraft(MEA)has been extensively studied due to its advantages of high reliability and high integration.However,this high integration results in a small heat dissipation area,leading to high-temperature problems.Generally,to reduce the temperature,a wet cooling method of using the pump leakage oil to cool the motor is adopted,which can also increase the difficulty of accurately predicting the system temperature in the early design stage.To solve this problem,a dynamic coupling thermal model of a wet EHA is proposed in this paper.In particular,the leakage oil of the pump is used as a coupling item between the electrical system and the hydraulic system.Then,an improved T-equivalent block model is proposed to address the uneven distribution of axial oil temperature inside the motor,and the control node method is applied to hydraulic system thermal modeling.Meanwhile,a dynamic coupling thermal model is developed that enables a dynamic evaluation of the wet EHA temperature.Then,experimental prototypes of wet motor and wet EHA are developed,while the temperature response of the wet motor at different rotation speeds and different loads and the temperature response of the wet EHA at no-load condition were verified experimentally at room temperature,respectively.The maximum temperature difference between the experimental and theoretical results of the wet motor as well as the experimental and theoretical results of the wet EHA is less than 8℃.These test results indicate that the dynamic coupling thermal model is valid and demonstrate that the thermal coupling modeling method proposed in this paper can provide a basis for the detailed thermal design of EHA.