The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 27, 2007
Filed:
Mar. 28, 2002
Larry J. Yount, Scottsdale, AZ (US);
Dale D. Davidson, Glendale, AZ (US);
William F. Potter, Waddell, AZ (US);
Alan B. Hickman, Cave Creek, AZ (US);
Willard A. Blevins, Glendale, AZ (US);
Larry J. Yount, Scottsdale, AZ (US);
Dale D. Davidson, Glendale, AZ (US);
William F. Potter, Waddell, AZ (US);
Alan B. Hickman, Cave Creek, AZ (US);
Willard A. Blevins, Glendale, AZ (US);
Honeywell International, Inc., Morristown, NJ (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for more reliably transferring operational control for various aircraft flight control surfaces from a first sub-system to a second sub-system. The present invention provides an Actuator Control Electronics (ACE) wrap-back module that monitors the output of the normal mode control module and switches control to the direct control module based upon the detection of an error condition. The switching function is controlled by a monitoring system that monitors the output from an integrated heartbeat module that emits a pre-programmed signal. The pre-programmed signal is encoded and sent over a communication bus where it is then decoded and validated by comparing the decoded signal to the expected results. Any irregularity in the heartbeat signal automatically triggers a change of control from the first flight control sub-system to the second flight control sub-system.