CANbus-based distributed fuel system with smart components
José M. Girón-Sierra, Carlos C. Insaurralde, Miguel A. Seminario, Juan F. Jiménez, P. Klose · IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems · 2008
A new distributed control system for fuel management and other avionics applications is introduced. The system consists of a network of smart components such as sensors, valves, and pumps which are connected via a controlled area network bus (CANbus). Thus, no central fuel management computer is required, wiring is simplified, and the weight decreases. The heart of each smart component is a CAN-enabled microcontroller. All smart components share a copy of the same code inside its microcontroller, for easier certification. A distribution methodology has been developed based on a set of automata and on the employment of CANbus (as the communication protocol) for global state broadcasting.