Traditional military aircraft design has been based on peak power and peak thermal loads. With the introduction of more-electric aircraft, increasing requirements for on-demand high-quality power for flight controls and electro-mechanical actuation devices will pose further challenges for energy efficiency and mission capability. Therefore, there is a new and pressing need for dynamic optimization for energy management of more-electric aircraft. Techno-Sciences, Inc. proposes a control system development based of hybrid systems theory. The effort will result in the construction of an expressive framework to pose the pertinent issues for energy management in aircraft systems, creation of optimization metrics, implementation of necessary computational tools and initial verification through simulation. We emphasize the wide applicability of the hybrid control architecture and the design software to a range of defense and commercial users. The effort is particularly of interest to the next generation of more-electric military aircrafts.
Benefit: The primary application is to utilize hybrid controllers for energy management and optimization in more-electric fighter airframes across multiple mission segments. This technology will enable better energy efficiency across multiple subsystems and improved range while aircraft still meets performance requirements without compromising the existing capabilities. In the commercial sector, similar advances are required for more-electric aircrafts to be efficient and dependable. Aircraft manufacturers, avionic system integrators and engine manufacturers are interested in technologies that will provide better fuel economy and improved range for next generation of aircrafts.
