In order to enable more efficient flying, the INTELWI project (https://www.ils.uni-stuttgart.de/en/research/projects/intelwi/ ) investigated the extent to which local smart wing functions, such as gust load reduction, can help to make aircraft lighter and more climate-efficient. Functions that have to react quickly to environmental influences require information along the wingspan with high sampling rates. Actuators must be controlled quickly and the information read back must be more accurate. For this reason, it was investigated how Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) can enable a smart wing.
The Institute of Aircraft Systems (ILS) has set up an automated, highly accurate test rig for variable differential transformer (VDT) interfaces in collaboration with the company Diehl Aerospace and a student. The accuracy of a VDT interface of an IMA device, which was provided by Diehl, was to be characterized statically and dynamically. Mario Werthwein and Marek Hauschild designed and built a test stand for this purpose. The test stand was designed for measurements with a linear VDT (LVDT) and was largely constructed from available hardware, such as a Raspberry PI or 3D printer components. However, in order to be able to check the extremely high accuracy of the interface, a LIDA measuring device from Heidenhain was used to measure the path by which the LVDT was deflected. This can check the position of the LVDT with the required accuracy using an LED scanning head and a high-precision scale. A successful measurement campaign was carried out with the test stand, which not only confirmed the function of the test stand, but also demonstrated the required static accuracy of the VDT interface of the IMA modules