LSU Research | Spring 2004

MAKING FLIGHT SAFER
LSU engineers developing ways for planes to avoid disaster, with or without the pilot

According to a final report by the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security under the Clinton Administration, Boeing projects that unless the global accident rate is reduced by 2015, an airliner will crash somewhere in the world almost weekly. Thankfully, researchers are working to reduce the global accident rate. Enter LSU professor Jorge Aravena and his team of electrical and computer engineers.

With a three-year, $1.6 million NASA and Louisiana Board of Regents grant, Aravena and his team are developing flight control systems that will be able to identify potential problems as early as possible and either make corrections or suggest courses of action to pilots. Using mathematical equations, the team is able to predict and anticipate how a plane will react to certain measures.

"What we are developing will be used in 15 to 20 years," says Aravena. "Once new research and airplane designs are approved, it takes roughly five to 10 years for those ideas to get in the air. The planes we will see in 10 years are already on the drawing board."

Currently, an airplane is fully automated during normal flight conditions. Pilots monitor the automated functions of the flight control computer from the cockpit. If there is a malfunction, pilots, using their knowledge and years of training, take action to correct the malfunction. The team is working to develop automated systems based on aircraft self-diagnostic. In other words, the new computer system would detect a problem earlier, recommend the best course of action, and, if necessary, take control of the flight. This "automatic safe recovery" is implemented through novel techniques first proposed by Aravena's co-principal investigator, LSU engineer Kemin Zhou, Menton professor and interim chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Using a mathematical model of an entire Boeing 747, the group can simulate how the plane may react in a specific situation. For instance, if the rudder becomes stuck on one side of the plane, then adjusting power to the engines might equalize the plane. Aravena and his team brainstorm different situations in which the plane may be jeopardized and then implement and test the safe recovery strategies. These different tests will also help future flight computers recommend the best course of action in a given situation.

Working under the Aviation Safety and Security Program, a joint research venture through NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration, Aravena and his team expect to unveil the first computer visualization of the complete self-diagnostic and safe recovery program by the end of the summer. They are collaborating with researchers from the University of New Orleans and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, who are working on separate phases of the project. Once their work is complete, NASA will test their theories on an actual Boeing 747 and then appear before an FAA panel to have the new technology certified and approved.

Aravena emphasizes the wide range of applications for this research and their interest in transferring their results to benefit Louisiana. The techniques, self-diagnostic, and safe recovery are relevant to all industrial processes. According to Aravena, instead of describing a plane, the equations could describe an oil refinery. Instead of representing wings and engines of a plane, equations could be used to map out pumps and pipelines in a refinery. The potential to minimize harm to people is remarkable, protecting both passengers on the ground, as well as in the sky.

ON THE WEB:
NASA Aviation Safety Program
LSU Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

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from Spring 2004 Issue