Control surface actuation synchronization system
AssigneeEaton Intelligent Power Limited
InventorsMeng Wang, Ryan Madson, Jalpa Shah
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An actuator control system can include a plurality of electro-mechanical actuators for operating one or more end effectors, a plurality of position sensors associated with the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators, each of the plurality of positions sensors providing an output indicating an actual position value, and a control system. The control system can be configured to receive an activation command signal and the position sensor outputs, and send a speed command for each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators and adjust the speed command of each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators using a common reference parameter to synchronize movement of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators together.
Claims19
An actuator control system comprising:
- (a) a plurality of electro-mechanical actuators for operating one or more end effectors;
- (b) a plurality of position sensors associated with the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators, each of the plurality of position sensors providing an output indicating an actual position value;
- and
- (c) a control system comprising:
- (i) a virtual EMA controller that continuously calculates a virtual position value of the one or more end effectors;
- (ii) a plurality of EMA controllers, wherein each of the plurality of EMA controllers is associated with a corresponding electro-mechanical actuator, each of the plurality of EMA controllers receiving the actual position value of the one or more end effectors,
- wherein the virtual position value and the actual position value are compared to determine an angle error value and an output is provided to one of the EMA controllers to adjust the speed of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators.
An actuator control system comprising:
- (a) a plurality of electro-mechanical actuators for operating one or more end effectors;
- (b) a plurality of position sensors associated with the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators and one or more end effectors;
- and
- (c) a control system configured to:
- (i) receive an activation command signal;
- (ii) send a speed command to each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators;
- (iii) receive outputs of the position sensors such that an actual position of each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators and associated end effectors can be determined;
- (iv) generate a virtual position value based on a virtual actuator model;
- and
- (v) adjust the speed command for each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators such that the actual positions of each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators is synchronized to match the virtual position value, thereby synchronizing the actual positions of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators together.
A method for synchronizing a plurality of electro-mechanical actuators, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving an actuator position demand;
- (b) sending a speed command to each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators;
- (c) receiving outputs from position sensors associated with the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators indicating an actual position value;
- (d) calculating a virtual position value of each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators;
- (e) comparing the actual position value to the virtual position value to determine an angle error value;
- and
- (f) adjusting the speed command of each of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators to synchronize movement of the plurality of electro-mechanical actuators together.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.