Wireless monitoring system for lightweight aircraft landing gear

Mass repartition onboard lightweight aircraft is a crucial problem as it may generate difficulties for the pilot during the landing phase. Being able for the pilot to land the plane properly is of course an important aspect for safety, but also for structure integrity. So the mass repartition monitoring could avoid hard landing occurrences. Hence, it is interesting to develop a mechatronic system able to measure in real time before take off the mass distributed on each landing gear. This measurement provides the ability for the pilot to avoid mass overload which can have direct impacts on the structural health integrity of the aircraft. So, in order to provide a steering aid system to analyze the mass repartition on the ground, the authors have develop a mechatronic equipment able to measure in a static state of the plane, the mass on each landing gear and in a dynamic state, to record the acceleration provided by the shock during the landing phase in order to prevent failures due to hard landing and ease maintenance operations. A human machine interface is developed, with an android application on the pilot smartphone. It provides the mass repartition and static center of mass, the acceleration on each landing gear and the instant when the wheels touch the ground. The system is based on pressure sensors located directly on the landing gear communicating with a wireless Zeegbee protocol sending continuously data from the three shock absorbers to the pilot smartphone.