Patent ID: 11866154
Assignee: AIRBUS OPERATIONS S.L.
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B

Claim 8:
9. A method for controlling an actuator for a control surface of an aircraft, the method comprising steps, implemented by a processing unit of a control system for controlling the actuator, of:
acquiring, from a set of sources of information on the aircraft, a set of values of a same parameter, the set comprising a number N of values;
determining, by a voter with N inputs, a value, referred to as a voted value, of the parameter according to the set of N values of the parameter; and
determining a control signal for controlling the actuator according to the value of the parameter determined by the voter;
the control system applying this control signal for controlling the actuator,
wherein, when the set of values of the parameter comprises a number N of values greater than three, N being equal to 2×p or to 2×p+1 depending on whether N is even or odd, p being an integer greater than or equal to 2, the step of determining the voted value by the voter with N inputs comprises determining two intermediate values from among the values of a subset of 2×p values of the set of N values of the parameter, according to sub-steps comprising:
implementing a set of at least p+1 voters with 2×p−1 inputs, the voters with 2×p−1 inputs receiving as input distinct subsets of 2×p−1 inputs of the subset of 2×p inputs;
determining a first of the two intermediate values corresponding to an output of a sub-module for determining a maximum value, receiving as input the outputs of the various voters with 2×p−1 inputs; and
determining a second of the two intermediate values corresponding to an output of a sub-module for determining a minimum value, receiving as input the outputs of the various voters with 2×p−1 inputs.