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Abstract: Use of fly-by-wire technology for aircraft flight controls have resulted in an improved performance and
reliability along with achieving reduction in control system weight. Implementation of full authority digital engine control
has also resulted in more intelligent, reliable, light-weight aircraft engine control systems. Greater reduction in weight can
be achieved by replacing the wire harness with a wireless communication network. The first step towards fly-by-wireless
control systems is likely to be the introduction of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are already finding a variety
of applications for both safety-critical and nonsafety critical distributed systems. Some of the many potential benefits of
using WSN for aircraft systems include weight reduction, ease of maintenance and an increased monitoring capability. This
paper discusses the application of WSN for several aircraft systems such as distributed aircraft engine control, aircraft flight
control, aircraft engine and structural health monitoring systems. A brief description of each system is presented along with
a discussion on the technological challenges. Future research directions for application of WSN in aircraft systems are also
discussed.
Keywords: Wireless sensor networks; Distributed turbine engine control; Fly-by-wireless; Aircraft engine health
monitoring; Aircraft structural monitoring; Communication constraints
proved. The use of ethernet and wireless technologies for gent control algorithms, which in turn call for an increase in
on-board systems, remote operational monitoring, testing the number of sensors. Military aircrafts and in particular,
and control of aircraft engine systems are well discussed UAVs will greatly benefit from the use of IFCS. Increas-
in [13, 14]. ing the number of sensors, without a substantial increase in
2.2 WSN for aircraft engine health management weight and complexity, is possible only by implementation
of WSN. WSN will enable integration of several systems
An aircraft engine is a complex system requiring regu-
into one, for example, the use of WSN for both aircraft en-
lar maintenance to ensure flight safety. Engine maintenance,
gine control and aircraft flight control will allow integra-
repair and overhaul (MRO) operations are time consuming
tion between flight control and propulsion control, which
and costly. Hence, in order to improve the time-on-wing
can significantly improve performance of military aircrafts
of aircraft engines, it is desired to perform condition-based
as well as UAVs. Also, there will be greater flexibility for
maintenance, which uses real-time data to schedule main-
adding functionality or improving the performance of the
tenance. Although the current maintenance methods do use
aircraft after initial design and production. One of the other
sensors for monitoring, data is not stored or transmitted on
advantage of using fly-by-wireless flight control systems
a real time basis. This prevents the use of advanced health
based on WSN is that if the pilots or flight deck controls be-
monitoring methods which require real time data analysis.
come inoperable or incapacitated, ground-based air traffic
Use of WSN for aircraft engine health monitoring will en-
control (ATC) or adjacent military aircraft with necessary
able implementation of condition-based monitoring algo-
electronics, can control the aircraft.
rithms due to availability of real-time data. Each of the
sensor nodes of the WSN will communicate with an on- Flight control systems being safety-critical systems are
board diagnostics and health monitoring system, which will of extreme importance to improve the reliability and perfor-
store the data points for the entire flight. Once on ground, mance of WSN in order to obtain flight certification. Perfor-
this data will be transmitted to the maintenance workshop mance of WSN in an electromagnetic and radiation environ-
through wireless communication. This will allow the use of ment and under lightning strikes, which both are prevalent
online as well as offline diagnostic algorithms. Also, since for commercial/military aircraft and UAVs needs to be stud-
the data communication will take place using a wireless net- ied. The effect of signal jamming on robustness of WSN
work, huge infrastructural investments will not be required. has to be studied in depth, in particular for WSN based
As engine health monitoring is not a safety-critical sys- flight control systems of commercial aircrafts. The poten-
tem, certification of WSN-based engine health monitoring tial of WSN-based flight control systems as a backup for
will be less complex than for WSN-based distributed engine FBW flight control systems also needs to be evaluated. For
control systems. However, availability of high temperature high endurance UAV or for UAV having flexible/morphing
electronics will still be one of the major obstacles for suc- wings, a common WSN for both aircraft flight control and
cessful implementation of WSN for engine health manage- aircraft structural control can greatly improve the flight per-
ment. Use of wireless technology for in-flight monitoring formance. Optimum bandwidth reduction algorithms for in-
of the temperature of aircraft gas turbine engines was stud- creasing the number of sensors without a significant in-
ied in [15], and reference [16] provides an overview of an crease in their power requirement also have to be devel-
architecture based on WSN for engine health monitoring. oped. Fig. 3 shows fly-by-wireless flight control systems
with WSN.
2.3 Fly-by-wireless aircraft flight control system
The aircraft flight control systems consist of flight control
surfaces, cockpit controls, sensors and communication link-
ages between cockpit control and flight control actuators. In
the current fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control systems, flight
control computers determine the control action, which is
transmitted to the control actuator through wire harnesses.
FBW flight control systems improves the handling charac-
teristics of an aircraft by providing high-integrity automatic
stabilization of an aircraft over the entire flight envelope and
for all loading conditions. Triple/quadruple channel redun-
dancy increases the safety and reliability of the flight con-
trol systems. Use of FBW flight control systems not only Fig. 3 Fly-by-wireless aircraft flight control system.
reduces the control system weight and reduces maintenance 2.4 WSN for aircraft structural health monitoring
complexities, but also reduces the pilot workload by per-
Because of the increasing use of composite materials for
forming other functions like stall prevention, etc. Imple-
aircraft structures, it is necessary to develop novel methods
mentation of FBW enables to limit the aircraft within its
for aircraft structural health monitoring. Most of the fail-
structural and aerodynamic limitations, which is known as,
flight envelope protection. However, these systems still re- ures of the laminated composite structures originate with
tain the bulky and heavy hydraulic systems for actuating delamination of layers. In case of metal aircraft structures,
the control surfaces. Use of electrical or electro-hydraulic cracks are developed in metal structures which grow over
actuators will further reduce the weight, but will also re- time leading to failures. For both of these cases, visual in-
quire additional sensing elements. Intelligent flight control spection is not a reliable method for failure detection. This
systems (IFCS) are being developed to safely control the calls for a vibration analysis-based failure detection method.
aircraft in the presence of structural damage or failure dur- Current scheduled aircraft structure maintenance methods
ing flight. This requires development of complex and intelli- have a high maintenance cost. Several studies have been
R. YEDAVALLI et al. / J Control Theory Appl 2011 9 (1) 28–33 31
data loss due to packet collisions. A very few studies have existing airplane radio transmitters and transmitters within
focused on this approach. For example, a cross-layer frame- the proposed WSN. There is no worldwide spectrum allo-
work for an integrated design of wireless networks and dis- cated specifically for fly by wireless systems. The new cer-
tributed controllers, which significantly improves the per- tification rules must ensure that WSN are protected against
formance and stability of the controller, is presented in [25]. unauthorized introduction and modification of data, denial
3.3 Dedicated spectrum for wireless aircraft systems or loss of service, gradual degradation of service and in-
Before implementing WSN for safety critical systems, troduction of misleading or false data. The current FAA
it is necessary to ensure that their operability will not be regulations expect physical isolation between safety criti-
compromised due to interference between various wireless cal and other communications networks like passenger en-
networks. The WSNs should not interfere with the aircraft tertainment networks. Use of WSN for the entire aircraft
communication, navigation, and surveillance radio systems makes physical isolation challenging. The new regulations
and the intra-aircraft wireless communication. The effect must also address security threats including safety threats,
of crew/passenger portable wireless electronics devices on business threats, channel jamming attacks, etc.
WSN also has to be considered during design of WSN.
3.4 Optimum power source 4 Conclusions
Powering all the sensors using the conventional batter- The aerospace industry will greatly benefit from the use
ies will not only increase the size and weight of the sys- of WSN. These benefits through weight savings, reduction
tem but will also limit their service life and will require ex- in subsystems design complexity and improved condition-
pensive maintenance. A widely investigated alternative is based maintenance will directly benefit the airlines in terms
to use energy harvesting techniques to generate electrical of additional revenues as well as lower operational and
power for operating these sensors. WSN can operate almost maintenance cost. Use of WSN-based engine health mon-
maintenance free by use of both energy harvesting meth- itoring and aircraft structural health monitoring will enable
ods and by implementing strict power management [26,27]. the development of safety-critical systems such as WSN
based distributed engine control and fly-by-wireless aircraft
Vibration-based harvesting technique is seen as one of the
flight control systems. However, there are a few signifi-
promising techniques for aerospace applications. Current
cant technical challenges for the successful implementation
vibration energy harvesters are constructed as mechanical of wireless sensor networks. Future research should be di-
resonators with a transducer element that converts motion rected in addressing the below given technical challenges.
into electricity. They are further divided into three groups
Safety-critical distributed control systems should be
of generators based on their physical transduction princi- studied for stability and performance under communication
ple: piezoelectric, electrostatic, and electromagnetic. Piezo- constraints like time delays and packet dropouts. Research
electric vibration-based energy converters deliver the high- should be conducted to reduce the conservativeness of the
est efficiency at lowest cost and increased life cycle. Piezo existing random delay stability conditions. The effect of bit-
ceramic bimorph beams and MEMS-based piezo resonators rate constraints on system stability and performance also
can be used to harvest the energy from vibrations while needs to be evaluated.
bulk ceramic and fiber composites directly bonded to the Research needs to be conducted in the area of informa-
aircraft structure can be used to harvest strain energy. As tion fusion of wireless sensor networks for aircraft systems.
there is a significant temperature gradient between the cabin Routing protocols should be developed to make effi-
lining and aircraft shell, thermoelectric generators can also cient use of the limited power supply, limited communica-
be used to harvest this energy. The operation of these ther- tion bandwidth and limited computing power.
moelectric devises is based on Seebeck-effect and it has Energy harvesting methods needs further improvement
been shown that a MEMS-based thermoelectric generator in the terms of efficiency and reliability.
can be efficiently used to generate sufficient power. Use of Development of high temperature electronics will en-
MEMS-based steam microturbines to generate electricity able the use of WSN for aircraft engine control and health
from waste heat of engine exhaust should also be investi- monitoring.
gated. New wireless aircraft certification regulations needs to
3.5 Certification of aircraft wireless systems be developed to address the various security and safety
Use of wireless communication networks for safety crit- threats.
ical functions of an aircraft require a very high degree of A dedicated global spectrum for WSN for aircraft appli-
safety assurance and certification [28]. The Federal Avia- cations needs to be developed.
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for monitoring and control[J]. Journal of Control Engineering Rama K. YEDAVALLI received his B.S. degree
Practice, 2004, 12(6): 781 – 791. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. degree in
[14] H. A. Thompson. Wireless sensor research at the rolls-royce control Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of
and systems university technology centre[C]//Proceedings of the Science, India, and Ph.D. degree from the School
1st International Conference on Wireless Communication, Vehicular of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Purdue Univer-
Technology, Information Theory and Aerospace & Electronic Systems sity in 1974, 1976 and 1981, respectively. He is cur-
Technology. New York: IEEE, 2009: 517 – 522. rently a professor in the Department of Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering at the Ohio State Uni-
[15] D. Goldsmith, E. Gaura, J. Brusey, et al. Wireless sensor networks versity, Columbus, OH. He is a fellow of IEEE and
for aerospace applications-thermal monitoring for a gas turbine a fellow of ASME and an associate fellow of AIAA. He is the recipient
engine[C]//Proceedings of Nanotech Conference and Expo. Boca of the O. Hugh Schuck Best Paper Award by the American Automatic
Raton, FL: CRC Press-Taylor & Francis Group, 2009: 507 – 512. Control Council in 2001. Dr. Yedavalli’s research and teaching interests
[16] H. Bai, M. Atiquzzaman, D. Lilja. Wireless sensor network for include robustness and sensitivity issues in linear uncertain dynamical sys-
aircraft health monitoring[C]//Proceedings of the 1st International tems, estimation and fault diagnostics of propulsion systems, control of
Conference on Broadband Networks. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE smart structural systems, networked control systems, dynamics and con-
Computer Society, 2004: 748 – 750. trol of flexible structures, aircraft, spacecraft, automotive, robotic, energy,
[17] T. Becker, M. Kluge, J. Schalk, et al. Autonomous sensor nodes for and other mechanical control systems. E-mail: yedavalli.1@osu.edu.
aircraft structural health monitoring[J]. IEEE Sensors Journal, 2009,
Rohit K. BELAPURKAR joined the Ohio State
9(11): 1589 – 1595.
University, U.S.A. in 2006 and is currently pursu-
[18] S. W. Arms, J. H. Galbreath, C. P. Townsend, et al. Energy ing Ph.D. degree in the Department of Mechan-
harvesting wireless sensors and networked timing synchronization ical and Aerospace Engineering. He obtained his
for aircraft structural health monitoring[C]//Proceedings of the 1st B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Uni-
International Conference on Wireless Communication, Vehicular versity of Pune, India, in 2006 and M.S. degree in
Technology, Information Theory and Aerospace & Electronic Systems Aerospace Engineering from the Ohio State Uni-
Technology. New York: IEEE, 2009: 16 – 20. versity, in 2008. His research interests include dis-
[19] F. M. Gondal. Embedded Wireless Sensor Network for Aircraft/ tributed aircraft engine control, networked control
Automobile Tire Structural Health Monitoring[D]. M.S. thesis. systems, time delay systems, decentralized control systems, sensor net-
Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, works, nonlinear control theory, and robust control of safety-critical dis-
2007. tributed systems. E-mail: belapurkar.2@osu.edu.