Knowledge-based system for aircraft electrical power system reconfiguration

Abstract

Aircraft electrical power system (EPS), in charge of supplying power to aircraft electric systems, needs a reconfiguration capability in order to overcome cases of EPS component failures. During the design phase, EPS reconfiguration elicitation is a complex task due to the high number of failure combinations and to the aeronautical operational constraints, which are to be taken into account. Therefore a knowledge-based system is developed in order to help designers for such a task. It is based on the implementation of two different types of rules: mandatory and know-how rules. EPS connectivity is managed by graph-theory algorithms. The knowledge-based system is capable of producing several reconfiguration solutions. The knowledge-based system functioning is illustrated in detail on a simplified EPS. Results on an actual and modern EPS are also presented.