On the effects of strain wave gear kinematic errors on the behaviour of an electro-mechanical flight control actuator for eVTOL aircrafts

On the effects of strain wave gear kinematic errors on the behaviour of an electro-mechanical flight control actuator for eVTOL aircrafts

Roberto Guida, Antonio C. Bertolino, Andrea De Martin, Andrea Raviola, Giovanni Jacazio, Massimo Sorli

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Abstract. In recent years, the increasingly growing overcrowding of urban environments and the resulting road traffic congestion have pushed toward the search for alternative mobility solutions, among which there are novel Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technologies. The UAM, together with the development of electric actuation systems, would allow decongesting the streets by exploiting the sky using electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircrafts. Urban air mobility vehicles are primarily based on fully electrical flight control systems with rotary output. Since such technology is relatively new and unproven, Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) algorithms, able to continuously monitor the health status of such systems, are of particular interest. The diffusion of these systems strongly depends on the general confidence of possible customers. The present paper proposes a preliminary study on the effects of the kinematic error of a Strain Wave Gear (SWG), the most used reducer for this kind of applications, on the behaviour of an Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA) used as a flight control actuator for an eVTOL aircraft. The simulation results show how the unavoidable kinematic error affects the EMA performances and how its presence can be detected and quantified in strain wave gears.

Keywords
Strain Wave Gear, Kinematic Error, eVTOL Aircrafts EMA

Published online 3/17/2022, 6 pages
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Roberto Guida, Antonio C. Bertolino, Andrea De Martin, Andrea Raviola, Giovanni Jacazio, Massimo Sorli, On the effects of strain wave gear kinematic errors on the behaviour of an electro-mechanical flight control actuator for eVTOL aircrafts, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 26, pp 207-212, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902431-34

The article was published as article 34 of the book Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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