Distributed modular control architecture development for gas turbine engines

The next-generation engine controls need to move to a distributed architecture. Some important benefits of distributed control architecture include sensor modularity, weight reduction, life-cycle cost reduction, ability to modify / upgrade components with minimal impact on overall system, reduction in the amount of hardware that must be re-designed, re-usability across engine platforms, ability to tailor-make the individual components and place them closer to sensors / actuators, reduced computational burden, no increased burden on existing system by adding functionality, and robustness. In this work we present a distributed engine control architecture, and a distributed modular control hardware setup we developed for a small turboshaft engine. The hardware is constructed of smart modules based on programmable systems on chip (PSoC), connected via a CAN interface. Nine different modules have been developed for this distributed control setup. These modules include pressure, temperature, and speed sensors and also control processors. These modules connected to a supervisory computer and communicate with each other using a CAN bus.