Integrated Health Monitoring for Robust Actuation System of UAV Primary Flight Controls

The research activity described in this paper is aimed at developing a high integrity mechatronic system for UAVs primary flight controls able to ensure the necessary flight safety and to enhance the system availability by implementing appropriate Prognostics and Health Management functions. In this system a flight control surface is driven by two parallel rollerscrew driven by brushless motors equipped with gearhead and clutches; the motors electric drives are controlled by dual redundant electronic units performing closed loop position control. Provisions are taken in the motor drives to provide damping in the event of simultaneous failure of both actuators. The electronic units perform control, diagnosis and prognosis of the actuation system and mutually exchange data via a cross channel data link. System health monitoring and prognosis is performed by dedicated algorithms based on a combination between particle filtering, Artificial Neural Networks and data driven techniques processing the control and feedback signals during flight and dedicated preflight checks. A smart mechatronic system is obtained providing high integrity control of an aerodynamic surface with dual mechanical link, dual power source and quadruplex control.