Bae Systems, Inc.

Justin Mark Dee

Jason Howard Bean

Peter Stuart Maley

A control system for assisting a pilot to control an aircraft operating under control of an active inceptor, the control system comprising: a receiver for receiving pilot-inputs on an active inceptor, an instruction generator to generate an instruction, the instruction based on an external signal associated with the geographical location of the aircraft; a tactile cue generator to generates a tactile cue which causes the active inceptor to move from a nominal position to a first offset position within a predetermined time period in response to the instruction.

Control system and method

A method to detect a hands off status of a user input device is disclosed. The method comprising filtering a sensed force, acting on the user input device, using a first lag filter to provide a first output, the lag filter comprising a first lag time constant. Filtering the sensed force using a second lag filter, substantially in parallel with the first filter, to provide a second output, the second lag filter comprising a second lag time constant greater than the first lag time constant. Comparing with a first threshold value, in a first comparison, a magnitude of a difference between the first output and the second output. Comparing with a second threshold value, in a second comparison, a magnitude of the second output. Designating the user device to have a hands off status based on the first comparison and the second comparison.

Inceptor and method

A method to obtain total compensation force information of a user input device is disclosed. The method comprising obtaining velocity information of a portion of the user input device. Obtaining acceleration information of the portion of the user input device. Obtaining damping force information force based on the velocity information. Obtaining inertial compensation force information based on the acceleration information. Combining the damping compensation force and inertial compensation force to provide the compensation force information of the user input device.

Force compensation method and device

A control system for electronically linked pilot and co-pilot inceptors () permits an asymmetric roll axis feel depending on whether an inceptor is moved inboard or outboard. A circuit () receives a signal representative of a force applied to the pilot's inceptor resulting from a side-to-side movement and detects if the force applied is in an inward or an outward direction. A gain factor is applied to the received force signal to produce a factored force signal. The gain applied to a signal representative of force applied in an outward direction is greater than the gain factor applied to a signal representative of force applied in an inward direction. A summer () sums the factored force signal with a corresponding factored force signal derived from force signals from the co-pilot's inceptor to produce a modified force signal for use in a force feedback control system associated with each inceptor.

Control systems and methods

A control system () for an active inceptor () for a fly by wire aircraft permits a zero force null point to settle to a non-zero displacement trim position. An internal position state of a second order mass spring damper model is moved in conjunction with force-displacement characteristic coordinates. This results in no second order dynamics being superimposed on the feel of the inceptor () when dynamically adjusting the trim position, thereby eliminating the possibility of any unpleasant buzzing been felt by the operator of the inceptor during a trimming operation.

Control systems

A control system () using fixed point computation avoids overflow conditions by limiting the internal quantities ensuring that contributing calculations from various parts of the control loop never add up to an overflow. Various parts of a control loop e.g. proportional terms can be prioritised over other parts, e.g. integral and differential terms and ensuring that the overall total resulting when the separate terms are summed together never exceeds the maximum or minimum imposed limits. Variable limit calculator circuits () revise the limits according to the output of the higher priority control path(s). The revised limits cascade down through each contributor, eventually allowing the lowest priority control path the smallest authority. The control system may be applied to control of a drive motor () for an aircraft inceptor ().

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Rochester, United Kingdom

Justin Mark Dee