Patent ID: 8291886

Claim:
A system for controlling fuel flow rate to a fluid-operated actuator and to a combustor in a gas turbine engine, comprising: a fuel metering pump coupled to receive fuel, and further coupled to receive a pump command representative of a desired fuel flow rate, the fuel metering pump operable, upon receipt of the pump command, to supply fuel at the desired fuel flow rate; a control unit including a control law and a state estimator, the state estimator comprising a software model of the fuel metering pump and an software model of the fluid-operated actuator, wherein: the state estimator coupled to receive an engine fuel flow rate command and an actuator position command and operable to supply state estimates of the fuel metering pump and the fluid-operated actuator, and the control law is coupled to receive the engine fuel flow rate command, the actuator position command, and the state estimates, and is configured, in response to the engine fuel flow rate command, the actuator position command, and the state estimates, to supply the pump command to the fuel metering pump and an actuator control command to the fluid-operated actuator.