AUTOMATIC FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM(AFCS)

BY
Muskan soudagar
17EAS0192029
What is an AFCS ?
• An aircraft autopilot with various autopilot related systems combined
or integrated into a single system is called an automatic control
system.
• These were generally found on high-performance aircrafts (e.g.
Cesena 182)
Working of AFCS

• ‘’AFCS’’ are designed to lower work load by producing a well-behaved flying

machine. ‘’AFCS’’ has lot of devices to alter or improve aircraft stability and
handling qualities, and permit certain parts of a aircraft to be flown
automatically.

The ‘’AFCS’’ can generally be classified into two hierarchy’s

1.Inner loop
• The inner loop is primarily governed by sensors monitoring internal conditions that are
directly related to aircraft such as roll, pitch, and yaw attitudes, accelerations.
2.Outer loop
• The outer loop deals with conditions external to aircraft such as airspeed, altitude, and
navigational information.
INNER LOOP
i)SAS (Stability augmentation system)
• SAS can automatically stabilize the aircraft in one or more axes.
• The most common type of SAS is the yaw damper which is used to
eliminate the Dutch roll tendency of swept-wing aircraft.
ii)SCAS (the stability and control augmentation system)
CAS provided dramatic improvements in aircraft handling qualities.
Both dynamic stability and control response characteristics
OUTER LOOP

• At this level, the system sensors work to maintain desired airspeed,

altitude, and sideslip. This is commonly done with the use of
actuators placed in parallel to the pilot’s controls.
• The highest level and outermost loop of an AFCS is the “operational
autopilot.” It is at this level that the system can command higher
functions such as point-to-point navigation or automatic tracking of
an instrument landing system (ILS).
Instrument landing system (ILS)

• instrument landing system (ILS) is used to provide precision guidance

to an aircraft during the approach and landing phase of a flight.
• The main components of an instrument landing system are a
glideslope, a localizer and one or more marker beacons.
ILS
• Vertical guidance is provided by the glideslope, which keeps the
aircraft high enough to avoid any obstacles, yet low enough for it to
make a stable approach for landing.
• The localizer system is responsible for keeping the pilot on course
laterally while marker beacons serve to notify the pilot of his distance
to the runway.
 Block diagram of AFCS

A basic simplified block diagram of the AFCS. x t -input signal, x k - estimates of the input signal, η -
noise in the forward and feedback channels, s-signals transmitted and received in the forward channel.
Forward and Feedback channels may be RF, open