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).
