Mirko Mazzoleni

Modeling and identification of an Electro-Hydraulic Actuator

In this work, a physical non-linear model of an Electro-Hydraulic Actuator has been developed. Each system component (valves, pipes, cylinders) and their interactions have been modeled by means of conservation and constitutive laws. The actuator dynamics, with lumped-parameter element models, have been treated accurately, with special attention given to modeling friction. Finally, a global parametric-identification procedure has been performed for all unknown parameters. Throughout this paper all the modeling assumptions and results from system identification are verified with experimental data.

Development of a reliable electro-mechanical actuator for primary control surfaces in small aircrafts

This paper lays the foundation for the development of an innovative electro-mechanical actuator for flight-control surfaces. The main features of the enhanced system will be the introduction of new sensor types and health monitoring capabilities. A dedicated test bench has been developed in order to perform endurance tests, leading the mechanical components to failure. In this view, a Condition Monitoring (CM) algorithm is expected to assess the progressive faults degradation, estimating their progression and the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of related subsystems. Based on the development of new hardware and software components, the REPRISE project is expected to deliver a significant contribution to the More Electric Aircraft mission.

Low computational complexity control of a three-phases open-windings AC brushless motor

The computational complexity of a modulating control is always one of the biggest limitation in the real control of brushless motor. This paper presents a low computational complexity control for a three phases open-windings AC brushless motor. The control strategy is based on a modified version of the D-Q frame: this solution allows to exploit the motor control libraries, already available on some motor control microprocessors. The PWM is generated in accordance to a novel algorithm based on a combination of two standard SVM algorithms, one for each inverter. The current controller has been tested on a real open-windings motor, installed as an active vibrations damper for aerospace applications. The experiments demonstrate the good quality of the current tracking and the high efficiency of the inverter, controlled with the proposed approach.

Fault Detection via modified Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning and application to aerospace electro-mechanical actuators

In this paper, the use of the Principal Direction Divisive Partitioning (PDDP) method for unsupervised learning is discussed and analyzed with a focus on fault detection applications. Specifically, a geometric limit of the standard algorithm is highlighted by means of a simulation example and a modified version of PDDP is introduced. Such a method is shown to correctly perform data clustering also when the standard algorithm fails. The modified strategy is based on the use of a Chi-squared statistical test and offers more guarantees in terms of detection of a wrong functioning of the system. The proposed algorithm is finally experimentally tested on a fault detection application for aerospace electro-mechanical actuators, for which a comparison with k-means and fuzzy k-means approaches is also provided.