Control margin display methods and systems

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to:

• obtain current aircraft state information;
• obtain current actuation state information for a plurality of effectors associated with an aircraft;
• identify effector limits for saturating respective effectors of the plurality of effectors based at least in part on the current aircraft state information and the current actuation state information using a flight dynamics model associated with the aircraft;
• determine a first range of achievable accelerations for the aircraft based at least in part on a relationship between the effector limits for saturating the respective effectors of the plurality of effectors and the current actuation state information;
• determine a range of potential effective input states for a user input device associated with the plurality of effectors to adjust one or more inertial rates of the aircraft before saturating one or more effectors of the plurality of effectors based on the first range of achievable accelerations, wherein the range of potential effective input states comprises a subset of a full actuation range of the user input device;
• provide a graphical user interface (GUI) display including a graphical representation of the full actuation range of the user input device with respect to a second graphical representation of the range of potential effective input states;
• and
• provide a third graphical representation of a current input state of the user input device with respect to the second graphical representation of the range of potential effective input states and the graphical representation of the full actuation range on the GUI display.

An aircraft system comprising:

• a plurality of effectors capable of influencing at least one of a spatial position and an orientation of an aircraft;
• at least one user input device to receive an input control command to adjust one or more inertial rates of the aircraft;
• a display device;
• one or more onboard systems to provide current aircraft state information;
• a data storage element maintaining a flight dynamics model associated with the aircraft;
• and
• a control module coupled to the display device, the data storage element, the at least one user input device, the one or more onboard systems and the plurality of effectors, wherein the control module is configurable to:
• identify effector limits for saturating respective effectors of the plurality of effectors based at least in part on the current aircraft state information and current actuation state information for the plurality of effectors using the flight dynamics model;
• determine a first range of achievable accelerations for the aircraft based at least in part on a relationship between the effector limits for saturating the respective effectors of the plurality of effectors and the current actuation state information;
• determine a range of potential effective input states for the at least one user input device to adjust the one or more inertial rates of the aircraft before saturating one or more effectors of the plurality of effectors based on the first range of achievable accelerations, wherein the range of potential effective input states comprises a subset of a full actuation range of the at least one user input device;
• provide, on the display device, a graphical user interface (GUI) display including a graphical representation of the full actuation range of the at least one user input device with respect to a second graphical representation of the range of potential effective input states;
• and
• provide, on the GUI display, a third graphical representation of a current input state of the at least one user input device with respect to the second graphical representation of the range of potential effective input states and the graphical representation of the full actuation range.