The possibilities of chosen applications of control and navigation systems in general aviation aircraft and unmanned air vehicles

Abstract

The development of informatics and sensor techniques has extended the possibilities of flight parameter measurement. It allows for extensive modification of control and navigation systems in air vehicles. This advance can also be noticed in the research of the Department of Avionics and Control at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszow University of Technology. Research in the area of digital flight control systems was initiated at the Department of Avionics and Control over twenty years ago. One of the first research works in this field was a digital autopilot for general aviation aircraft M-20 Mewa (APC-1P). At the end of the 90’s the control and navigation system for unmanned aircraft (APC-4) was designed and applied on the board of PZL-110 Koliber aircraft. The next step in control system development was the indirect (Fly-by-Wire) flight control system for general aviation aircraft (SPS-1A) [12]. This system was also installed and tested on the board of PZL-110 Koliber aircraft. The solutions mentioned were featured using a new design approach. Available in-market components were chosen in respect of quality and safety. At the same time the improvement of structures of control and navigation systems were worked out. Safety provision was obtained by the use of structures with reconfiguration, induced by the methods of fault detection and localization. These structures are only known in transport or military aircraft. The progress of theoretical methods of the control systems design was strictly connected with development of production technology. The use of milling and thermo-transfer technology for the manufacture of printed circuits and advanced techniques of electronic devices integration has allowed the development of repeatable methods for manufacturing highly reliable systems. With tens of years of experience in the Department of Avionics and Control, Rzeszow University of Technology contains a lot of conclusions and notices. The authors are going to share some of them in this article.

First published online: 14 Oct 2010