HIERARCHICAL DAMAGE TOLERANT CONTROLLERS FOR SMART STRUCTURES

A SMART AEROSPACE STRUCTURE WHICH CAN DETECT AND ISOLATE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE IN REAL-TIME AND PROVIDE ON-LINE RECONFIGURATION OF THE STRUCTURE'S CONTROL SYSTEM UNDER THE DETECTED IMPAIRMENT CONDITIONS WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY BOOST THE RELIABILITY, MAINTAINABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF CURRENT AND PROPOSED AIR FORCE FLIGHT AND SPACE VEHICLES. HERE, WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE AND DEFINE A SMART AEROSPACE STRUCTURE STARTING FROM A BASELINE ARCHITECTURE CONSISTING OF: SENSOR ARRAYS FOR IMMEDIATE DAMAGE DETECTION SUCH AS IN SITU PIEZOELECTRICS USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER RIGID AND FLEXIBLE BODY CONVENTIONAL SENSORS; A HIERARCHICAL DAMAGE DETECTION SYSTEM IN WHICH FAILURES ARE IDENTIFIED AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE LEVEL AND UNRESOLVED SCENARIOS ARE PASSED TO THE NEXT UPPER LEVEL IN THE HIERARCHY; AN IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM WHICH TRANSFORMS THE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE INFORMATION INTO A MODEL SUITABLE FOR THE REDESIGN OF THE ACTIVE CONTROLLER ON-LINE; A DECENTRALIZED CONTROLLER WHICH RECONFIGURES ITSELF ON-LINE BASED ON DETECTED DAMAGE CONDITIONS AND THEIR ESTIMATED LEVELS; AND A REAL-TIME KNOWLEDGE BASED EXPERT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DAMAGE DETECTION, CONTROL MODEL IDENTIFIER AND RECONFIGURABLE DECENTRALIZED CONTROLLER SYSTEMS BASED ON A KNOWLEDGE COMPILER APPROACH USING GENERAL PURPOSE NUMERIC PROCESSORS.