A novel integrated self-powered brake system for more electric aircraft

Traditional hydraulic brake systems require a complex system of pipelines between an aircraft engine driven pump (EDP) and brake actuators, which increases the weight of the aircraft and may even cause serious vibration and leakage problems. In order to improve the reliability and safety of more electric aircraft (MEA), this paper proposes a new integrated self-powered brake system (ISBS) for MEA. It uses a hydraulic pump geared to the main wheel to recover a small part of the kinetic energy of a landing aircraft. The recovered energy then serves as the hydraulic power supply for brake actuators. It does not require additional hydraulic source, thus removing the pipelines between an EDP and brake actuators. In addition, its self-powered characteristic makes it possible to brake as usual even in an emergency situation when the airborne power is lost. This paper introduces the working principle of the ISBS and presents a prototype. The mathematical models of a taxiing aircraft and the ISBS are established. A feedback linearization control algorithm is designed to fulfill the anti-skid control. Simulations are carried out to verify the feasibility of the ISBS, and experiments are conducted on a ground inertia brake test bench. The ISBS presents a good performance and provides a new potential solution in the field of brake systems for MEA.     

Rational design of self-powered sensors with polymer nanocomposites for human–machine interaction

Smart sensors are becoming one of the necessities for connecting and detecting surrounding stimuli with tremendous convenience, especially when exploiting a single powerful sensor with multifunctionality. To successfully accomplish the design of a self-powered sensor, serving power is becoming a critical issue because of its continuously consumed energy required by electronics. A variety of nanogenerators aiming for the rational design of self-powered system are reviewed and compared, followed by their recent advances with polymer nanocomposites for self-powered sensors. More importantly, the proposed conceptual design of a self-powered unit/device with triboelectric nanogenerator has been emphasized to eventually realize the practical activities towards multiple detections and human–machine interaction. Finally, challenges and new prospects of rational design of self-powered polymer composite sensors in achieving human–machine interaction/interface are discussed.