Periodic Reporting for period 3 - HIRIS (Helicopter Innovative Rotating Instrumentation System)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-09-01 bis 2021-05-31
HIRIS (Helicopter Innovative Rotating Instrumentation System) objective is to provide an efficient TRL 6 Flight Test Instrumentation system fully adapted to specific configuration and needs of the RACER from Airbus Helicopters.
The innovation comes from an hybrid solution of proven and tested technologies, in use for legacy solutions in order to ensure energy transmission on rotating parts.
For the developments, it is decisive to implement disruptive solutions for contactless and wireless instrumentation of rotary parts that will drastically improve reliability, availability and flexibility regarding legacy solutions.
For an helicopter manufacturer, this may become a significant competitive advantage as rotors are the most critical parts of the aircraft.
It will however imply many modifications in the usual way to conceive solutions hence forcing to imagine an “unusual” instrumentation system.
The overall objectives are listed here below:
- Instrumentation of Main and Lateral Rotors with up to 128 channels,
- Inductive powering system up to 50W,
- Wireless lossless datalink up to 50Mbps useful data (for all 3 rotors),
- Wireless system synchronization down to 50ns,
- Instrumentation of drive Shafts at up to 6000rpm,
- Wraparound acquisition system for the drive shafts up to 85°C,
- Wireless system configuration based on eZ software suite.
The innovation comes from an hybrid solution of proven and tested technologies, in use for legacy solutions in order to ensure energy transmission on rotating parts.
For the developments, it is decisive to implement disruptive solutions for contactless and wireless instrumentation of rotary parts that will drastically improve reliability, availability and flexibility regarding legacy solutions.
For an helicopter manufacturer, this may become a significant competitive advantage as rotors are the most critical parts of the aircraft.
It will however imply many modifications in the usual way to conceive solutions hence forcing to imagine an “unusual” instrumentation system.
The overall objectives are listed here below:
- Instrumentation of Main and Lateral Rotors with up to 128 channels,
- Inductive powering system up to 50W,
- Wireless lossless datalink up to 50Mbps useful data (for all 3 rotors),
- Wireless system synchronization down to 50ns,
- Instrumentation of drive Shafts at up to 6000rpm,
- Wraparound acquisition system for the drive shafts up to 85°C,
- Wireless system configuration based on eZ software suite.
The 3 periods of the GA could be summarized as followed:
- 1st period (12 months) as a derisking phase of the different technologies (inductive power, UWB, Wifi, Bluetooth, strain gage acquisition, mechanical substentiation...)
- 2nd period (18 months) as a design phase and manufacturing and test of the firsts units,
- 3rd period (9 months) dedicated to system integration, validation, qualification and test on a real aircraft (H175).
The GA ended on May 31, 2021 but SDS is still working on this project.
- On June 7, 2021, HIRIS passed its first flight installed on a real H175 with excellent results.
* Inductive power very stable with health monitoring available and a yield up to 50%,
* Wireless lossless data transmission,
* Wireless synchronization around +-200ns typ in flight,
- In pararell, HIRIS has completed its functionnal and environmental qualification:
* Wireless lossless data transmission, up to 20Mbps in rotation up to 2500rpm,
* Vibration, shocks, rotation, temperature -40°C / +85°C, humidity, EMC characteristaion,
* Few issues discovered on the WLS module to be fixed during the industrialization phase of the product.
- Next step is to complete the assembly and acceptance of the 3 HIRIS prototypes for the RACER.
Regarding dissemination:
- These results were co-presented by AH and SDS to the community during the European Test and Telemetry Conference on June 15-16, 2021.
- The HIRIS system will be presented as well during ITC (International Telemetry Conference) in October 2021 in Las Vegas.
Regarding exploitation, SDS plan to industrialize the HIRIS prototype to make it a real COTS product:
- New XMA-ABC module for strain gage acquisition,
- New XMA-WLS module wireless connectivity (data and synchronization),
- New XMA-Rotor product with a mechanical design dedicated and justified for installation on rotor head with 28V or inductive power options.
Part of the initial scope of the GA was to provide Instrumentation of the drive shafts for high rotation speed up to 10000 rpm / 120°C.
Here is a summary of the work performed on that topic during the first 2 periods of the GA:
- A rotative bench designed in ZDS facilitity able to reach 10000 rpm.
- BLE technology tested up to 10000 rpm with first issues encountered at 6000 rpm.
- Decision made to limit the environnement of HIRIS instrumentation on the shaft to 6000 rpm / 85°C.
- UWB selected against BLE in order to provide better performances and robustness (50 ns with UWB against 50 us expected with BLE).
- PDR milestone passed with AH in Jan 2020.
- Drive shaft FTI system development stopped in June 2020 before CDR because of budget issues (see amendment to the GA).
- 1st period (12 months) as a derisking phase of the different technologies (inductive power, UWB, Wifi, Bluetooth, strain gage acquisition, mechanical substentiation...)
- 2nd period (18 months) as a design phase and manufacturing and test of the firsts units,
- 3rd period (9 months) dedicated to system integration, validation, qualification and test on a real aircraft (H175).
The GA ended on May 31, 2021 but SDS is still working on this project.
- On June 7, 2021, HIRIS passed its first flight installed on a real H175 with excellent results.
* Inductive power very stable with health monitoring available and a yield up to 50%,
* Wireless lossless data transmission,
* Wireless synchronization around +-200ns typ in flight,
- In pararell, HIRIS has completed its functionnal and environmental qualification:
* Wireless lossless data transmission, up to 20Mbps in rotation up to 2500rpm,
* Vibration, shocks, rotation, temperature -40°C / +85°C, humidity, EMC characteristaion,
* Few issues discovered on the WLS module to be fixed during the industrialization phase of the product.
- Next step is to complete the assembly and acceptance of the 3 HIRIS prototypes for the RACER.
Regarding dissemination:
- These results were co-presented by AH and SDS to the community during the European Test and Telemetry Conference on June 15-16, 2021.
- The HIRIS system will be presented as well during ITC (International Telemetry Conference) in October 2021 in Las Vegas.
Regarding exploitation, SDS plan to industrialize the HIRIS prototype to make it a real COTS product:
- New XMA-ABC module for strain gage acquisition,
- New XMA-WLS module wireless connectivity (data and synchronization),
- New XMA-Rotor product with a mechanical design dedicated and justified for installation on rotor head with 28V or inductive power options.
Part of the initial scope of the GA was to provide Instrumentation of the drive shafts for high rotation speed up to 10000 rpm / 120°C.
Here is a summary of the work performed on that topic during the first 2 periods of the GA:
- A rotative bench designed in ZDS facilitity able to reach 10000 rpm.
- BLE technology tested up to 10000 rpm with first issues encountered at 6000 rpm.
- Decision made to limit the environnement of HIRIS instrumentation on the shaft to 6000 rpm / 85°C.
- UWB selected against BLE in order to provide better performances and robustness (50 ns with UWB against 50 us expected with BLE).
- PDR milestone passed with AH in Jan 2020.
- Drive shaft FTI system development stopped in June 2020 before CDR because of budget issues (see amendment to the GA).
HIRIS Inductive power system has shown great results with up to 80% efficicency in the lab and 50% in a real metallic environment (H175).
This inductive power doesn't require any pairing between transmitter and receiver.
This will spare time and money during installation and maintenance of the system in operation.
HIRIS wireless synchronization system is based on UWB technology running IEEE1588 like algorithm.
Accuracy has been demonstrated in the lab with even better than existing wired solution.
The results in flight are today equivalent to a wired solution.
HIRIS acquisition system will be based on 2 types of modules:
- XMA-ANA: 8-channel generic acquisition module for temperature, pressure, voltage, full bridge strain gages, potentiometer, IEPE accelerometers,
- XMA-ABC: 8-channel strain gage acquisition module for quarter, half or full bridge sensors.
Being so, HIRIS system is very versatile and shoudn't require any hardware change to adapt to a new measurement plan.
This will save time and money during the flight test campaign and allow over night re configuration of the FTI system.
The objective of HIRIS were to provide an efficient TRL 6 Flight Test Instrumentation equipment fully adapted to specific configuration and needs of the RACER demonstrator.
HIRIS is a disruptive solution for the Helicopters world.
This fully contactless and wireless solution will drastically improve reliability, availability and flexibility regarding legacy solutions.
The specific impacts expected from HIRIS are:
- Reducing the number of test hours to troubleshoot or certify the demonstrator will be possible thanks to the large data bitrates transmitted, the very accurate synchronization between measures and the versatility of acquisition brought by the HIRIS system. This will contribute to increasing the EU competitiveness in this field of development.
- Safety will be increased too as the inductive power technology developed for HIRIS brings high efficiency at few 10KHz frequency bands which should not create any trouble for the other equipment of the helicopter. This will contribute to the increased impact on mobility.
- HIRIS system will allow the users to get rid of batteries, wires, slip rings which will heavily reduce the FTI equipment weight, installation and maintenance costs with a substantial impact on environment and cost reductions.
This inductive power doesn't require any pairing between transmitter and receiver.
This will spare time and money during installation and maintenance of the system in operation.
HIRIS wireless synchronization system is based on UWB technology running IEEE1588 like algorithm.
Accuracy has been demonstrated in the lab with even better than existing wired solution.
The results in flight are today equivalent to a wired solution.
HIRIS acquisition system will be based on 2 types of modules:
- XMA-ANA: 8-channel generic acquisition module for temperature, pressure, voltage, full bridge strain gages, potentiometer, IEPE accelerometers,
- XMA-ABC: 8-channel strain gage acquisition module for quarter, half or full bridge sensors.
Being so, HIRIS system is very versatile and shoudn't require any hardware change to adapt to a new measurement plan.
This will save time and money during the flight test campaign and allow over night re configuration of the FTI system.
The objective of HIRIS were to provide an efficient TRL 6 Flight Test Instrumentation equipment fully adapted to specific configuration and needs of the RACER demonstrator.
HIRIS is a disruptive solution for the Helicopters world.
This fully contactless and wireless solution will drastically improve reliability, availability and flexibility regarding legacy solutions.
The specific impacts expected from HIRIS are:
- Reducing the number of test hours to troubleshoot or certify the demonstrator will be possible thanks to the large data bitrates transmitted, the very accurate synchronization between measures and the versatility of acquisition brought by the HIRIS system. This will contribute to increasing the EU competitiveness in this field of development.
- Safety will be increased too as the inductive power technology developed for HIRIS brings high efficiency at few 10KHz frequency bands which should not create any trouble for the other equipment of the helicopter. This will contribute to the increased impact on mobility.
- HIRIS system will allow the users to get rid of batteries, wires, slip rings which will heavily reduce the FTI equipment weight, installation and maintenance costs with a substantial impact on environment and cost reductions.