METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR REDUCING THE STRUCTURAL COUPLING PHENOMENON IN SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING AN AIR REFUELLING BOOM

摘要

The invention relates to a method for controlling an air refuelling boom (11) in order to provide increased damping of the movement of the boom by moving control surfaces (16) as a function of the angular velocity thereof. The method comprises the following steps: a) placing at least two sensors (32, 33) in two sections of the boom (11), located on opposite sides of the valley (41) of the dominant flexible mode (40) for any length of the telescopic extension (12) thereof, and determining therein the moduli (D1, D2) of the angular deformations of the dominant flexible mode (40); b) obtaining the angular velocities (Q1, Q2) from the data provided by the sensors (32, 33); and c) obtaining the angular velocity Q not affected by the resonance of the dominant flexible mode (40) as a function of the angular velocities (Q1, Q2) and the moduli (D1, D2), which eliminates the elastic movement component from the dominant flexible mode (40). The invention also relates to a control system and a computer program for executing said method.