R&D project to improve monitoring of wiring in aircraft
[2008-6-20]
Tag: Electrical Wire Harness
While there are many avionics systems that monitor communications,navigation and display and management of multiple systems, wiringoften gets overlooked in terms of in-flight monitoring.
The current state-of-the art technology tests the behaviour of thewiring harness, but only on the ground. This requires the plane tobe out of service and for separate sections of the wiring to beaccessed directly with test equipment designed for that particularaircraft.
Currently there is no system available that will tell manufacturersand operators when problems are likely to occur, or indeed if aproblem has occurred. The design team at the Institute for SystemLevel Integration (iSLI) has teamed up with Ultra Electronics BCFLtd to achieve a new capability that could eliminate this problemand make aircraft much easier to operate and maintain.
The two companies began collaborating under the Network ofExcellence (Patent Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture DfMM)project run under the 'EU Framework 6' funding programmes (FP6).The Network of Excellence aims to establish a new technicalcommunity that will address the underlying engineering science toensure that problems affecting the manufacture and reliability ofproducts based on MNT can be addressed before prototype andpre-production.
The project under research and development has two sections, thefirst of which aims to provide proof of principle of MEMs sensorsbeing applied to monitoring the environment surrounding wiring inthe aircraft, whilst the second aims to demonstrate that thegathered data can be sent wirelessly to a central hub where it canthen be passed to the aircraft's avionics systems.
The first section is funded by the South East England DevelopmentAgency, with the design group at iSLI acting as a sub-contractor toBCF. The sensors under development need to gather multiple types ofappropriate data from a position intimately connected to thewiring. The ultimate goal is to be able to monitor how quickly thewiring will age, if it is constantly getting wet or stretched forexample. This will allow maintenance to be done when it is neededrather than doing it much more frequently than strictly necessaryor waiting for a failure.
Both iSLI and Heriot Watt University are conducting research anddevelopment into the types of sensors that can be made and how theycan be realised in the available processes. The processes are alsocurrently under review and development by Qudos Technology at theRutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxford. The first sensordevices will measure temperature, humidity, strain and changes inelectrical current. They will be manufactured using MEMS processesbased on silicon, with the ultimate aim being to make at leastthree of the sensors in a single process.
In order for the project to achieve its primary aims, there hasbeen a significant requirement for research as the sensortechnologies are not widely in use, but are found in academicliterature. Head of the iSLI Design Group, Mark Begbie comments:“Moving the research outcomes from a disparate group, to aset of modelled designs which can be made on as near the sameprocess as possible has been the biggest challenge to date, withchoosing base designs, optimising and making trade-offs inmaterials used and the like.”
At this stage in the research project the requirements and theperformance modelling are poorly characterised, but the team ismoving towards the point where a first set of these sensors will betested and characterised in order to confirm the accuracy of themodelling.
The designs will then be re-optimised to get to a point where weare designing for the level of performance that the BCF is lookingfor. As there are no equivalent products on the market that tacklethis issue, the sensor system will be applicable across a wholevariety of industries that need to monitor the effect of theenvironment on wiring; in building, bridges or trains for instance.
The advantages of extending the set of sensors available are clear;aircraft equipped with this technology will be cheaper and moreefficient to maintain and operate as well as having a higher safetymargin.
The secondary aim of the research project is to develop a highlyrobust system that can gather data wirelessly to a central hub fromwhich it can be passed to the aircraft avionics systems. The datawill be moved from one sensor node to the next (a bucket chain)until it reaches the hub. The system needs to keep working even ifthe nodes die so the design needs to incorporate the ability to addnew nodes without it causing a problem.
To achieve this, an appropriate platform has been designed withwhich to demonstrate the technology. This consists of a commercialradio chipset operating in the license free 433MHz band built ontoa bespoke PCB designed by iSLI. It is smaller than a business cardand runs on a single penny cell battery. Whilst this platform isused for demonstration, iSLI is not tied to the technology.
The design team has also created a communication protocol stackbased on the Berkley MAC [B-MAC] which will implement the actualnetwork behaviour. Developed in-house, this will run on the boardsthemselves. One of the boards (nodes) will be attached to a PC viaUSB and will act as the main hub that the data is ultimately passedto. The software is built in a layered fashion which means in thefuture the different layers can be modified (the physicalcommunication hardware or the type and amount of data that is sent)without having to redesign the whole system.
The first generation wireless system therefore uses a universal'node' board operating in the unlicensed 433MHz radio range totransmit and receive sensor data. All boards are the same, but onewill be attached to a PC and will act as the final destination forthe data. They will operate a bespoke network protocol toimplement an ad hoc multi-hop data transfer protocol; whereby thedata is passed from node to node until it reaches the hub.
Mark Begbie comments: “In the wireless project the first ofthe challenges was in finding suitable wireless hardware which willoperate with low power consumption, reasonable range and withoutrestrictions on use for the prototype stage. The 433MHz bandsatisfies all of these criteria. Then when designing the wirelessprotocol we chose to use the B-MAC as a starting point, strippingout those features we did not need and then building the softwarecore up from the start. Academic literature provided the basis forthe network protocol and traffic management layer of the software,but we were also extremely fortunate to have in-house experience ofdeveloping exactly this sort of thing for Bluetooth.”
With low power operation and a multi-hop self-healing networkstructure to increase reliability enabling the network to cope withthe breakdown of individual nodes, the system is designedspecifically to be optimised for gathering and transmitting datafrom remote low powered sensor modules. The modular design alsoenables other radio technologies to be used for differentapplications where required. The applications of this technologyare in Health Management and Prognostics for structures such asaircraft or remote installations where other methods of maintenancemanagement can be time-consuming and costly. Other applicationscould include building environmental control, asset and personneltracking on a site. The wireless design however, is generallysuited to any application where there is a distributed array ofnodes and you want to get information across the space they occupy.
This application of a new technology (MEMs) in conjunction with anew twist on an existing technology to create a new capability hasa myriad of implications for the avionics industry in the operationand maintenance of aircraft. If the research project is successfulin the creation of sensors to record how and why wiring in aircraftages, it is to be anticipated that in the next 5-10 years thistechnology, created by iSLI and BCF, may be an industry norm.
Founded in 1998, iSLI (the Institute for System Level Integration)provides postgraduate education, professional training and researchin system level integration incorporating cross over technologiessuch as hardware, embedded software, MNT/MEMS.
A collaboration of the computing science, informatics andelectronic engineering departments of the universities ofEdinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde, and ScottishEnterprise, the Institute is the first centre of excellence insystem level integration to be established worldwide. Its aim is tosupport the development of electronics systems design worldwide andto encourage the exploration of new technologies through research.
While there are many avionics systems that monitor communications,navigation and display and management of multiple systems, wiringoften gets overlooked in terms of in-flight monitoring.
The current state-of-the art technology tests the behaviour of thewiring harness, but only on the ground. This requires the plane tobe out of service and for separate sections of the wiring to beaccessed directly with test equipment designed for that particularaircraft.
Currently there is no system available that will tell manufacturersand operators when problems are likely to occur, or indeed if aproblem has occurred. The design team at the Institute for SystemLevel Integration (iSLI) has teamed up with Ultra Electronics BCFLtd to achieve a new capability that could eliminate this problemand make aircraft much easier to operate and maintain.
The two companies began collaborating under the Network ofExcellence (Patent Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture DfMM)project run under the 'EU Framework 6' funding programmes (FP6).The Network of Excellence aims to establish a new technicalcommunity that will address the underlying engineering science toensure that problems affecting the manufacture and reliability ofproducts based on MNT can be addressed before prototype andpre-production.
The project under research and development has two sections, thefirst of which aims to provide proof of principle of MEMs sensorsbeing applied to monitoring the environment surrounding wiring inthe aircraft, whilst the second aims to demonstrate that thegathered data can be sent wirelessly to a central hub where it canthen be passed to the aircraft's avionics systems.
The first section is funded by the South East England DevelopmentAgency, with the design group at iSLI acting as a sub-contractor toBCF. The sensors under development need to gather multiple types ofappropriate data from a position intimately connected to thewiring. The ultimate goal is to be able to monitor how quickly thewiring will age, if it is constantly getting wet or stretched forexample. This will allow maintenance to be done when it is neededrather than doing it much more frequently than strictly necessaryor waiting for a failure.
Both iSLI and Heriot Watt University are conducting research anddevelopment into the types of sensors that can be made and how theycan be realised in the available processes. The processes are alsocurrently under review and development by Qudos Technology at theRutherford Appleton Laboratories in Oxford. The first sensordevices will measure temperature, humidity, strain and changes inelectrical current. They will be manufactured using MEMS processesbased on silicon, with the ultimate aim being to make at leastthree of the sensors in a single process.
In order for the project to achieve its primary aims, there hasbeen a significant requirement for research as the sensortechnologies are not widely in use, but are found in academicliterature. Head of the iSLI Design Group, Mark Begbie comments:“Moving the research outcomes from a disparate group, to aset of modelled designs which can be made on as near the sameprocess as possible has been the biggest challenge to date, withchoosing base designs, optimising and making trade-offs inmaterials used and the like.”
At this stage in the research project the requirements and theperformance modelling are poorly characterised, but the team ismoving towards the point where a first set of these sensors will betested and characterised in order to confirm the accuracy of themodelling.
The designs will then be re-optimised to get to a point where weare designing for the level of performance that the BCF is lookingfor. As there are no equivalent products on the market that tacklethis issue, the sensor system will be applicable across a wholevariety of industries that need to monitor the effect of theenvironment on wiring; in building, bridges or trains for instance.
The advantages of extending the set of sensors available are clear;aircraft equipped with this technology will be cheaper and moreefficient to maintain and operate as well as having a higher safetymargin.
The secondary aim of the research project is to develop a highlyrobust system that can gather data wirelessly to a central hub fromwhich it can be passed to the aircraft avionics systems. The datawill be moved from one sensor node to the next (a bucket chain)until it reaches the hub. The system needs to keep working even ifthe nodes die so the design needs to incorporate the ability to addnew nodes without it causing a problem.
To achieve this, an appropriate platform has been designed withwhich to demonstrate the technology. This consists of a commercialradio chipset operating in the license free 433MHz band built ontoa bespoke PCB designed by iSLI. It is smaller than a business cardand runs on a single penny cell battery. Whilst this platform isused for demonstration, iSLI is not tied to the technology.
The design team has also created a communication protocol stackbased on the Berkley MAC [B-MAC] which will implement the actualnetwork behaviour. Developed in-house, this will run on the boardsthemselves. One of the boards (nodes) will be attached to a PC viaUSB and will act as the main hub that the data is ultimately passedto. The software is built in a layered fashion which means in thefuture the different layers can be modified (the physicalcommunication hardware or the type and amount of data that is sent)without having to redesign the whole system.
The first generation wireless system therefore uses a universal'node' board operating in the unlicensed 433MHz radio range totransmit and receive sensor data. All boards are the same, but onewill be attached to a PC and will act as the final destination forthe data. They will operate a bespoke network protocol toimplement an ad hoc multi-hop data transfer protocol; whereby thedata is passed from node to node until it reaches the hub.
Mark Begbie comments: “In the wireless project the first ofthe challenges was in finding suitable wireless hardware which willoperate with low power consumption, reasonable range and withoutrestrictions on use for the prototype stage. The 433MHz bandsatisfies all of these criteria. Then when designing the wirelessprotocol we chose to use the B-MAC as a starting point, strippingout those features we did not need and then building the softwarecore up from the start. Academic literature provided the basis forthe network protocol and traffic management layer of the software,but we were also extremely fortunate to have in-house experience ofdeveloping exactly this sort of thing for Bluetooth.”
With low power operation and a multi-hop self-healing networkstructure to increase reliability enabling the network to cope withthe breakdown of individual nodes, the system is designedspecifically to be optimised for gathering and transmitting datafrom remote low powered sensor modules. The modular design alsoenables other radio technologies to be used for differentapplications where required. The applications of this technologyare in Health Management and Prognostics for structures such asaircraft or remote installations where other methods of maintenancemanagement can be time-consuming and costly. Other applicationscould include building environmental control, asset and personneltracking on a site. The wireless design however, is generallysuited to any application where there is a distributed array ofnodes and you want to get information across the space they occupy.
This application of a new technology (MEMs) in conjunction with anew twist on an existing technology to create a new capability hasa myriad of implications for the avionics industry in the operationand maintenance of aircraft. If the research project is successfulin the creation of sensors to record how and why wiring in aircraftages, it is to be anticipated that in the next 5-10 years thistechnology, created by iSLI and BCF, may be an industry norm.
Founded in 1998, iSLI (the Institute for System Level Integration)provides postgraduate education, professional training and researchin system level integration incorporating cross over technologiessuch as hardware, embedded software, MNT/MEMS.
A collaboration of the computing science, informatics andelectronic engineering departments of the universities ofEdinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde, and ScottishEnterprise, the Institute is the first centre of excellence insystem level integration to be established worldwide. Its aim is tosupport the development of electronics systems design worldwide andto encourage the exploration of new technologies through research.
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