The Boeing Company

Theboeing Company

Son T Vo

Gregory Harris Smith

Randall Wayne Watkins

Kenneth A Seidner

Wayne Pauley

Troy Cobb

Shamoon Sikora

Alexander Piraner

William L Moon

A pressure control system may include a plurality of inflatable objects, each of the inflatable objects having a respective pressure sensor and a respective inflation valve, wherein each of the inflation valves has a behavior profile predictive of an amount of current used by the valve when operated. A valve controller of the system may have a pressure management circuit that receives information from the pressure sensors and is configured to automatically maintain a respective selected pressure in each of the inflatable objects by issuing commands to operate the inflation valves. An electrical current management circuit of the valve controller may be configured to predict, based on the valve behavior profiles, what effect the command would have on a total current usage, when executed, and automatically prevent any command that would cause the total current usage to exceed a maximum allowable current.

Predictive valve control system

Embodiments described herein provide short circuit detection capabilities for current drivers. One embodiment includes a controller and a current driver. The current driver includes a power switch circuit that couples a supply rail to a high side of a load in response to receiving a drive signal. The current driver further includes a continuity circuit that couples the supply rail to the high side and indicates to the controller whether a first current flow to the high side exceeds a first threshold. The current driver further includes a current sense circuit that couples a low side of the load to ground and indicates to the controller whether a second current flow from the low side exceeds a second threshold. The controller identifies, based on the first current flow, the second current flow, and the drive signal, a plurality of short circuit conditions that may exist at the current driver.

Current drivers that utilize short circuit protection

Technologies for sequentially initiating squibs in one or more release mechanisms in order to reduce delay between successive squibs are provided. A squib initiation sequencer is configured to initiate squibs of one or more release mechanisms in a pre-programmed sequence. The squib initiation sequencer is further configured to detect when the initiation of each squib in the sequence is complete, and immediately move to the next sequential step without waiting the entire maximum initiation time per the squib manufacturer's specifications.

Squib initiation sequencer

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Huntington Beach, CA, United States of America

Son T Vo