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Airbus: The controller certification route
Aeroengines are controlled by a system called Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC). This system controls the engine for a given thrust command by regulating the input fuel flow.
In modern aircraft a parallel system called Engine Monitoring Unit is also integrated. The objective of this approach is to increase the aircraft reliability.
With this purpose in mind, Airbus flight controls incorporate Fault Detection and Diagnosis. Prior to its implementation, the FDD algorithms must provide high levels of robustness and performances. This system should be robust enough not to degrade the aircraft reliability. To verify this level of robustness, the system validation and verification proceeds through several steps:
Peer review of the specifications: Prior knowledge on the practice must be accounted for.
Analysis: For a given failure condition, the system checks that the monitoring and reconfiguration logic allow the fulfilment of the quantitative and qualitative objectives, but also analysis of system performance, and integration with the structure.
Tests on a desktop simulator: Extensive tests are performed using the software coupled to a rigid aircraft model.
Tests on a System Integration Bench (SIB), a test bench used to tune the…