Fault {D}etection, Identification and Reconfiguration Techniques: FDI and reconfiguration methods and the problem of their integration towards full RFTFC

A research initiative within the framework of the Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe (GARTEUR) co-operation program examined the application of multiple fault-tolerant flight control (FTFC) algorithms in a realistic aircraft accident scenario. An aircraft model, reconstructed using the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) of the 1992 Amsterdam Bijlmermeer aircraft accident (Flight 1862), was used to evaluate the algorithms in an offline benchmark and an online piloted evaluation. This paper focuses on the experiment development for a piloted simulator evaluation of innovative reconfigurable control algorithms applied to a damaged civil transport aircraft. The evaluation scenario, measurements and experimental design, as well as the real-time implementation are described. The evaluation showed that the FTFC algorithms were able to restore conventional control strategies after the aircraft configuration has changed dramatically due to severe failures. The algorithms supported the pilot after a failure by lowering workload and allowing a safe return to the airport. For some failures, the handling qualities were shown to degrade less with a failure than the baseline classical control system.