Developing Service-Oriented Architectures to Enable Plug and Play Technology for Propulsion Control Systems

When new hardware element (e.g., propulsor, engine, sensor, actuator) becomes available for use in a propulsion-system as an addition or a replacement of an older/different hardware, it is desirable to retain the existing control-system and apply the existing control capabilities rather than decommissioning the entire system and replacing it with an altogether new control system. However, this requires that the existing controller has the capability of self-learning and autotuning to the new propulsion-system architecture. This proposal investigates the concept of plug and play (PnP) for distributed propulsion control and possible methods of replacing/upgrading propulsion hardware elements or introducing new components in a smooth manner by developing quality-of-service (QoS) aware service-oriented architectures, while providing stability guarantees during the transition phase as well as retaining the original control structure. The applicability of the technology can be investigated for different propulsion systems such as (a) a core turbine engine to be connected with various/different propulsors/propellers/fans quickly so it can work for different missions in a UAV/aircraft, and (b) a hybrid propulsion system with two/three different types of engines and need to plug in or swap one of the engines (e.g. generator/electric motor, etc.) to make it more suitable for a different mission/aircraft.