Neural networks: Applications and opportunities in aeronautics

Abstract Technologies based on neural networks are currently being developed which may assist in addressing a wide range of complex problems in aeronautics. The review indicates that the proper utilization of this technology offers a feasible approach to help meet current and future technological needs. This might include, but is not limited to, the following: the implementation of active control devices to harness or suppress unsteady aerodynamic effects such as dynamic stall on helicopter rotor blades; the parallel data processing of 10s to 1000s of sensors either for actuation and control or for system and component ‘health’ monitoring and fault detection; the development of simulators and control algorithms for severe, ‘unsteady’, six degree-of-freedom vehicle maneuvers where the linearized equations of motion do not adequately describe the vehicle dynamics; and the requirement to monitor these sensors, simulate the maneuvers and instigate control all on a time-scale which must be faster than the real-time phenomena. Clearly, neural networks alone will not solve these problems. However, neural networks provide a practical approach for determining solutions of complex nonlinear problems such as equations of motion, for the parallel processing of 1000s of sensors, and this can be achieved with the required computational speed.