On-board control system for high-reliability and survivability aircraft

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to describing a method for increasing the reliability and survivability of on-board control systems. The object of the research is a class of aircraft — cruise missiles, which are considered one of the most promising weapon systems. The article analyzes modern structures of on-board control systems that ensure high reliability of such systems. The study focuses on analyzing four-channel fault-tolerant systems for on-board control complexes with enhanced survivability, which ensure high operational reliability of the complexes over extended periods without physical maintenance while maintaining resistance to equipment malfunctions and failures. Additionally, the paper examines its prototype — a three-channel system with synchronization outputs. Both positive and negative aspects of these systems are highlighted, noting their high level of hardware redundancy. For short-lifespan aircraft, such as cruise missiles and similar systems, the authors propose a two-channel quasi-bridge structure (QBS) for the on-board control system, featuring block-level redundancy and reconfiguration. In general, the QBS represents a system consisting of a sequential connection of redundant nodes with equal reliability. When one of the functional subunits of a redundant node fails, the control and reconfiguration scheme excludes it from the computational process and reconfigures the system structure in a non-stop mode. As a tool for studying the reliability of the on-board system, a probabilistic-physical method (PP-method) has been used, which is based on a diffusive distribution of time-to-failure (DN-distribution), specifically formalized for the assessment and prediction of the reliability of electronic, electrical, and electromechanical elements and systems. While maintaining the level of redundancy characteristic of all two-channel structures, the proposed two-channel redundant QBS, with its decomposition of channels into equally reliable redundant nodes, leads to an increase in the probability of failure-free operation (the R-effect), which becomes more significant as the number of nodes increases. The paper also describes the principle of placing functional subunits of the QBS, providing an additional effect — the overall increase in system survivability.