Aircraft fuel management reconfigurable system with smart components for distributed decision

This papers introduces a current research on avionic distributed control systems, using smart components. The research focus on fuel management systems. The nearest experimental target is real flight testing into three years. For safety reasons the new distributed system has to react with pertinent reconfigurations when there are problems in the system, as detected by the smart components. Likewise, it is possible that the fuel plant changes, for instance when extra tanks are added, so the distributed control system has to reconfigure its functionality. The specific experimental platform for the research is an helicopter. The paper describes the control problem, the control distribution concept, the smart components, and the present research for reconfiguration.