Individual blade control

Apparatus for individually controlling each blade of a rotor that rotates with a mast which drives the rotor through a rotating hub, the improvement comprising:

• a plurality of blade actuators mounted to rotate with the hub and independently coupled to a rotor blade for control thereof, each actuator individually controlled;
• power generating means mounted to rotate with the hub and providing actuator power and control signals for each section of said plurality of blade actuators;
• and
• control channels for connecting a control signal and actuator power to the individual actuators in accordance with pilot inputs.

Apparatus for individually controlling each blade of a rotor that rotates with a mast which drives the rotor through a rotating hub, the improvement comprising:

• a plurality of blade actuators mounted to rotate with the hub and individually coupled to a rotor blade for control thereof in accordance with an applied blade control signal;
• and
• power generating means mounted to rotate with the hub and providing actuator power and a control signal in response to an applied input for each of said plurality of blade actuators, said blade generating means including:
• means for generating a blade position signal that varies with the position of the blade as the hub rotates with the mast;
• means for combining the blade position signal and the applied input to generate an output signal that varies therewith;
• and
• means for characterizing the output of said means for combining for each individual blade to generate the blade control signals.

Apparatus for individually controlling each blade of a rotor that rotates with a mast which drives the rotor through a rotating hub, the improvement comprising:

• a plurality of blade actuators mounted to rotate with the hub and independently coupled to a rotor blade for control thereof, each actuator individually controlled in accordance with an applied blade control signal;
• and
• power generating means mounted to rotate with the hub and providing actuator power and control signals for each of said plurality of blade actuators, said power generating means including:
• a plurality of signal generating means, each signal generating means responsive to the position of the blades as the hub rotates with the mast to individually generate a blade position signal for each of said plurality of blade actuators, each signal generating means including means for combining the blade position signal and an applied input to generate an output signal that varies therewith;
• and
• means for characterizing the output of each of said means for combining for individually characterizing each blade control signal for each of said plurality of the blade actuators.