Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach

Christophe Delebarre

doi:doi:10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

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Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach

Christophe Delebarre

Published in Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Volume 7, Issue 6)

Received: 30 August 2019 Accepted: 11 October 2019 Published: 25 December 2019

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Abstract

Aircraft landing gears support the aircraft during ground operations, including take-off, landing impact, taxiing, gate handling and maintenance. In the aeronautical field, the aircraft mass repartition is a significant factor which ensures stability and safety. In order to have the best control of their device, pilots have to know the precise location of the aircraft’s center of gravity, especially during critical phases such as take-off and landing. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take-off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. This document presents the prototyping of an embedded system which allows determining and informing in real time about the mass distribution within a lightweight aircraft by measuring the pressure inside of each shock absorber. This prototype involves the design of a specific electronic card including an embedded microcontroller, several sensors, a Bluetooth module and an Android interface for smartphones. An application has been developed to directly print on the smartphone screen the aircraft acceleration during the flight and during the landing. It actually allows estimating the pitch and the roll angles of the aircraft during the flight which are computed using the X, Y and Z components of the acceleration. The two angles are represented by the aircraft pictograms.

Published in	Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Volume 7, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
Page(s)	170-176
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Landing Gear, Mass Repartition, Center of Gravity, Sensors, Microcontroller, Bluetooth Communication, Smartphone Application

References

[1]	C. D. Berg, P. E. Wellstead, “The Application of a Smart Landing Gear Oleo Incorporating Electrorheological Fluid”, Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures, Vol, Issue 8, 1998.
[2]	R. Schmidt and Steven Gedeon, “Method and system for health monitoring of aircraft landing gear “, US patent: US20060144997A1, Nov 2004.
[3]	W. Krüger, “Design and Simulation of Semi-active Landing Gears for Transport Aircraft”, Mechanics of Structures and Machines, Volume 30, 2002 - Issue 4, pp 493-526.
[4]	Haitao Wangab, J. T. Xinga, W. G. Pricea and Weiji Lib “An investigation of an active landing gear system to reduce aircraft vibrations caused by landing impacts and runway excitations”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Volume 317, Issues 1–2, 21 October 2008, pp 50-66.
[5]	Jodel D-140 E, “Instruction Manual”, Internal Document ACB-JMG, June 2009.
[6]	Seung-Keon Kwak; Gregory Washington; and Rama K. Yedavalli, “Acceleration Feedback-Based Active and Passive Vibration Control of Landing Gear Components”, Journal of Aerospace Engineering, January 2002 \| Volume 15, Issue 1.
[7]	G. N. Dayananda, B. Varughese and M. Subba Rao, “Shape Memory Alloy Based Smart Landing Gear for an Airship”, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 44, N°.5, september-october 2007.
[8]	Jan Holnicki-Szulc, C. Graczykowski, G. Mikułowski, A. Mróz, P. Pawłowski, "Smart Technologies for Adaptive Impact Absorption", Solid State Phenomena, Vol. 154, pp. 187-194, 2009.
[9]	Grzegorz M Mikułowski and Jan Holnicki-Szulc, “Adaptive landing gear concept—feedback control validation”, Smart Material and Structure, Vol. 16, N°. 6, 2007.
[10]	HaitaoWangab J. T. XingaW. G. Pricea Weiji Lib, “An investigation of an active landing gear system to reduce aircraft vibrations caused by landing impacts and runway excitations”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 317, Issues1-2, pp 50-66, 2008.
[11]	Christophe. Delebarre, Sébastien. Grondel, Samuel. Dupond et al. “Wireless monitoring system for lightweight aircraft landing gear”, September 2017, DOI: 10.1109/REM.2017.8075230, 2017 International Conference on Research and Education in Mechatronics (REM2017).
[12]	G. Mikulowski and J. Holnicki-Szulc, “Adaptive aircraft shock absorbers”, AMAS Workshop on Smart Materials and StructuresSMART’03 – (pp. 63–72) – Jadwisin, September 2-5, 2003.
[13]	Jan Holnicki-Szulc, C. Graczykowski, G. Mikułowski, A. Mróz, P. Pawłowski, “Smart technologies for adaptive impact absorption”, Solid State Phenomena (Volume 154), Smart Materials for Smart Devices and Structures, Edited by Marcin Leonowicz and Dariusz Oleszak, pp 187.
[14]	S. J. Cowan, R. L. Cox, H. W. Slusher, S. Jinadasa, “Airplane hard landing indication system”, US Patent 6,676,075. January 2004.
[15]	Wolf R. Krüger, Marco Morandini, “Recent developments at the numerical simulation of landing gear dynamics”, CEAS Aeronautical Journal, September 2011, Volume 1, Issue 1–4, pp 55–68.
[16]	«Needs and Requirements for Aircraft Weighing», FAA-8083-30-CH_04, 2016 US department of transportation Federal Aviation Administration.
[17]	https://aerospace.honeywell.com/en/products/navigation-and-sensors/weight-and-balance.

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APA Style

Christophe Delebarre. (2019). Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 7(6), 170-176. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

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ACS Style

Christophe Delebarre. Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. J. Electr. Electron. Eng. 2019, 7(6), 170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

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AMA Style

Christophe Delebarre. Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. J Electr Electron Eng. 2019;7(6):170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

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@article{10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16,
  author = {Christophe Delebarre},
  title = {Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach},
  journal = {Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering},
  volume = {7},
  number = {6},
  pages = {170-176},
  doi = {10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jeee.20190706.16},
  abstract = {Aircraft landing gears support the aircraft during ground operations, including take-off, landing impact, taxiing, gate handling and maintenance. In the aeronautical field, the aircraft mass repartition is a significant factor which ensures stability and safety. In order to have the best control of their device, pilots have to know the precise location of the aircraft’s center of gravity, especially during critical phases such as take-off and landing. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take-off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. This document presents the prototyping of an embedded system which allows determining and informing in real time about the mass distribution within a lightweight aircraft by measuring the pressure inside of each shock absorber. This prototype involves the design of a specific electronic card including an embedded microcontroller, several sensors, a Bluetooth module and an Android interface for smartphones. An application has been developed to directly print on the smartphone screen the aircraft acceleration during the flight and during the landing. It actually allows estimating the pitch and the roll angles of the aircraft during the flight which are computed using the X, Y and Z components of the acceleration. The two angles are represented by the aircraft pictograms.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach
AU  - Christophe Delebarre
Y1  - 2019/12/25
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
T2  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
JF  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
JO  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
SP  - 170
EP  - 176
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2329-1605
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
AB  - Aircraft landing gears support the aircraft during ground operations, including take-off, landing impact, taxiing, gate handling and maintenance. In the aeronautical field, the aircraft mass repartition is a significant factor which ensures stability and safety. In order to have the best control of their device, pilots have to know the precise location of the aircraft’s center of gravity, especially during critical phases such as take-off and landing. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take-off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. This document presents the prototyping of an embedded system which allows determining and informing in real time about the mass distribution within a lightweight aircraft by measuring the pressure inside of each shock absorber. This prototype involves the design of a specific electronic card including an embedded microcontroller, several sensors, a Bluetooth module and an Android interface for smartphones. An application has been developed to directly print on the smartphone screen the aircraft acceleration during the flight and during the landing. It actually allows estimating the pitch and the roll angles of the aircraft during the flight which are computed using the X, Y and Z components of the acceleration. The two angles are represented by the aircraft pictograms.
VL  - 7
IS  - 6
ER  -

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Author Information

Christophe Delebarre

Polytechnic University of Hauts-de-France, IEMN-DOAE, ENSIAME, Valenciennes, France

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Christophe Delebarre. (2019). Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 7(6), 170-176. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Christophe Delebarre. Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. J. Electr. Electron. Eng. 2019, 7(6), 170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Christophe Delebarre. Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach. J Electr Electron Eng. 2019;7(6):170-176. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16,
  author = {Christophe Delebarre},
  title = {Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach},
  journal = {Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering},
  volume = {7},
  number = {6},
  pages = {170-176},
  doi = {10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jeee.20190706.16},
  abstract = {Aircraft landing gears support the aircraft during ground operations, including take-off, landing impact, taxiing, gate handling and maintenance. In the aeronautical field, the aircraft mass repartition is a significant factor which ensures stability and safety. In order to have the best control of their device, pilots have to know the precise location of the aircraft’s center of gravity, especially during critical phases such as take-off and landing. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take-off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. This document presents the prototyping of an embedded system which allows determining and informing in real time about the mass distribution within a lightweight aircraft by measuring the pressure inside of each shock absorber. This prototype involves the design of a specific electronic card including an embedded microcontroller, several sensors, a Bluetooth module and an Android interface for smartphones. An application has been developed to directly print on the smartphone screen the aircraft acceleration during the flight and during the landing. It actually allows estimating the pitch and the roll angles of the aircraft during the flight which are computed using the X, Y and Z components of the acceleration. The two angles are represented by the aircraft pictograms.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Smart Aircraft Landing Gear: The Mechatronic Approach
AU  - Christophe Delebarre
Y1  - 2019/12/25
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
DO  - 10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
T2  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
JF  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
JO  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
SP  - 170
EP  - 176
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2329-1605
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20190706.16
AB  - Aircraft landing gears support the aircraft during ground operations, including take-off, landing impact, taxiing, gate handling and maintenance. In the aeronautical field, the aircraft mass repartition is a significant factor which ensures stability and safety. In order to have the best control of their device, pilots have to know the precise location of the aircraft’s center of gravity, especially during critical phases such as take-off and landing. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take-off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. This document presents the prototyping of an embedded system which allows determining and informing in real time about the mass distribution within a lightweight aircraft by measuring the pressure inside of each shock absorber. This prototype involves the design of a specific electronic card including an embedded microcontroller, several sensors, a Bluetooth module and an Android interface for smartphones. An application has been developed to directly print on the smartphone screen the aircraft acceleration during the flight and during the landing. It actually allows estimating the pitch and the roll angles of the aircraft during the flight which are computed using the X, Y and Z components of the acceleration. The two angles are represented by the aircraft pictograms.
VL  - 7
IS  - 6
ER  -

Copy | Download