Implementation of a transputer-based flight controller

Increasingly, as flight-control laws become more complex and sample times shorten, implementation requirements are outstripping the capacity of general-purpose single-processor systems. This has prompted the investigation described in the paper of the feasibility of using a parallel-processing transputer-based network, programmed in occam, for the implementation of an aircraft-flight-control algorithm. Although the problems of flight-control implementation motivated the study, the research findings have wider applicability. Three techniques to generate the concurrent realisation of a typical flight-control law are described and illustrated together with some indications of their strengths and weaknesses. On the basis of this preliminary study, one of these approaches is suggested as a practical way to tackle the problem. Software tools have been used and developed to automate the mapping of control laws onto transputer-based systems. These have proved to be effective and convenient aids, supporting real-time simulation and implementation.