Method and device for monitoring and estimating parameters relating to the flight of an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11287283-B2
Application number	US-201815980991-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2018
Priority date	May 23, 2017
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

A device for monitoring and estimating parameters relating to the flight of an aircraft includes an estimation module 4 for determining an estimation of the values of the parameters relating to the flight of the aircraft and for generating residues, a detection module for determining the statuses associated with each of said sensors C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN and with a parameter P 1 corresponding to the weight of the aircraft, a transmission module for transmitting the statuses associated with each of said sensors C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN to a user device and, on the next iteration, to the estimation module.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring and estimating: parameters relating to a flight of an aircraft (AC); statuses of sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN), the statuses being representative of an operation of said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN); and a status of a parameter (P 1 ) corresponding to a current weight of the aircraft (AC), the status being representative of a validity of said parameter, the method comprising:
an initialization step (E 1 ), implemented by an initialization module, including initializing the statuses of sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN) configured to determine flight parameters of the aircraft (AC) and the status of the parameter (P 1 ) corresponding to the current weight of the aircraft (AC) and initializing parameters used in an implementation of a monitoring and estimation device;

the method further comprising the following steps, implemented iteratively:
an estimation step (E 2 ), implemented by an estimation module, including determining an estimation of values of the parameters relating to the flight of the aircraft (AC) and an estimation of an error of said weight, from:
measurements of the parameters relating to the flight supplied by the sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN);
parameters relating to the flight initialized in the initialization step (E 1 ) or estimated on the preceding iteration of the estimation step (E 2 ); and
statuses associated with each of said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN),

the estimation step (E 2 ) further comprising generating residues (r i ) which are functions of the measured and estimated values of the parameters relating to the flight and of innovation terms;
a first transmission step (E 3 ), implemented by a first transmission module, including:
transmitting to a user device and to a detection module a signal representative of the estimation of the values of the parameters relating to the flight of the aircraft (AC) and of the estimation of the error of the current weight parameter, determined in the estimation step (E 2 ),
sending to said detection module a signal representative of the residues generated in the estimation step (E 2 );

a detection step (E 4 ), implemented by a detection module, including determining different statuses associated with each of said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN) and with the parameter (P 1 ) corresponding to the current weight of the aircraft (AC), from:
the estimation of the values of the residues (r i ) determined in the estimation step (E 2 );
the estimation of the values of the parameters relating to the flight of the aircraft (AC) determined in the estimation step (E 2 );
the measurements of the parameters relating to the flight supplied by the sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN);
the estimation of the error of the current weight parameter (P 1 ) determined in the estimation step (E 2 ); and
the statuses determined on the preceding iteration of the detection step (E 4 ) or initialized in the initialization step (E 1 ); and

a second transmission step (E 5 ), implemented by a second transmission module, including transmitting to the user device and, on the next iteration, to the estimation module the different statuses associated with each of said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN) and the status associated with said parameter (P 1 ) corresponding to the current weight,
wherein the estimation step (E 2 ) comprises the following substeps:
an adaptation substep (E 21 ), implemented by an adaptation submodule, including determining a variance and/or a validity Boolean associated with each of the measurements of the parameters relating to the flight supplied by the sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN) and of the setting parameters associated with the estimation algorithm used in an estimation substep (E 22 ), from:
said measurements of the parameters relating to the flight, and
the statuses associated with each of said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN);

the adaptation substep (E 21 ) further comprising correcting the current weight from a weight error estimated on the preceding iteration or initialized in the initialization step (E 1 ), and from a status associated with the parameter (P 1 ) corresponding to the weight;
an estimation substep (E 22 ), implemented by an estimation submodule, including determining the estimation of the values of the parameters relating to the flight and an estimation of the error of said weight, from:
the measurements of the parameters relating to the flight supplied by said sensors (C 1 , C 2 , . . . , CN);
the parameters relating to the flight estimated on the preceding iteration or initialized in the initialization step (E 1 ); and
the variance and/or the validity Boolean of each of the measurements of the parameters relating to the flight and of the setting parameters determined in the adaptation substep (E 21 ),
the estimation substep (E 22 ) further comprising generating the residues from the estimated and measured parameters relating to the flight and from the innovation terms, and

wherein the estimation substep (E 22 ) corresponds to an extended Kalman filter associated with a state vector (X), an observation vector (Y) and an auxiliary measurement vector (Z),

the auxiliary measurement vector (Z) having for expression:

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Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas
• Office National Detudes Et De Rech Aerospatiales Onera

Inventors

• Goupil Philippe
• Delporte Martin
• Seren Cedric
• Hardier Georges
• Alcalay Guillaume

Classifications

• G05B17/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title

• G01C23/00

  Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration · CPC title

• G05B23/0254

  based on a quantitative model, e.g. mathematical relationships between inputs and outputs; functions: observer, Kalman filter, residual calculation, Neural Networks · CPC title

• G01C23/005 Primary

  Flight directors (indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32) · CPC title

• G01C9/005

  specially adapted for use in aircraft · CPC title