Controls systems are an increasingly important component of turbine-engine system technology. However, as engines become more capable, the control system itself becomes ever more constrained by the inherent environmental conditions of the engine; a relationship forced by the continued reliance on commercial electronics technology. A revolutionary change in the architecture of turbine-engine control systems will change this paradigm and result in fully distributed engine control systems. Initially, the revolution will begin with the physical decoupling of the control law processor from the hostile engine environment using a digital communications network and engine-mounted high temperature electronics requiring little or no thermal control. The vision for the evolution of distributed control capability from this initial implementation to fully distributed and embedded control is described in a roadmap and implementation plan. The development of this plan is the result of discussions with government and industry stakeholders.
With the advent of vectored thrust, vertical lift, and fly-by-wire aircraft, the complexity of aircraft gas turbine control systems has evolved to the point wherein they must approach or equal the reliability of current quad redundant flight control systems. To advance the technology of high-reliability engine controls, one solution to the Byzantine General’s problem (Lamport et al., 1982) is presented as the foundation for fault tolerant engine control architecture. In addition to creating a control architecture, an approach to managing the architecture’s redundancy is addressed.
Aircraft turbine engine control systems development: Historical perspective
