AMETEK's IoT Solution for Cooling Joint Strike Fighter Pilots

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AMETEK, a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices, was contracted by Lockheed Martin to design a portable flight suit chiller unit for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. The chiller unit works with a pilot cooling vest to maintain a pilot’s deep body core temperature at ≤ 100.4° F (38° C). The JSF program aims to deliver affordable, next-generation striker aircraft weapon systems for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines, and allies. Pilots flying these aircrafts are subject to high levels of acceleration – up to 9g – and must wear G-suits to prevent blackouts. To prevent pilots suffering from heat stress in the cockpit and on the ground, portable flight suit chiller units are needed. The design challenge was to monitor multiple variables and develop the code that goes to the controlling device to make those adjustments automatically. The chiller unit must also run within its power limits to prevent damage.

AMETEK, INC. is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices. With over 15,000 employees at more than 150 manufacturing locations around the world, AMETEK serves a variety of markets including Aerospace and Defense, Connectors, Metals and Engineered System & Materials, Electronic Instruments, Motors and Blowers, and Power. The company was contracted by Lockheed Martin to design a portable flight suit chiller unit for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, which aims to deliver affordable, next-generation striker aircraft weapon systems for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines, and allies.

AMETEK's team decided to follow a model-based development (MBD) approach, leveraging solidThinking Embed. Using solidThinking Embed, the team created a working model of the combined chiller unit and control system via a block diagram approach. They refined the plant model using measurements of plant responses in the lab. Then a multi-loop PID controller was built with interlock safety stages that stepped through the start-up and shutdown actions necessary to avoid damage to sensitive device components. After debugging and tuning the controller in offline Embed simulations, an ANSI C code from the controller model was created automatically. Then the code was compiled and downloaded directly to the Texas Instruments (TI) C2000 target chip, using a bi-directional Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) link. Engineers tested the control algorithm firmware running on the C2000. It resides in the Embed plant model running in real time on a PC, using JTAG technology to easily provide an interface between virtual plant outputs supplied to the firmware and firmware control outputs supplied back to the virtual plant model in Embed.

• With the use of solidThinking Embed, AMETEK was able to create a working model of the combined chiller unit and control system. The software allowed the team to model the system and be confident about their design before committing to any hardware. The software guided the team in the right path to take and sped up development. When it came to the verification and validation exercises, the software allowed code segments to be individually tested and the results logged. The code for all the peripherals was created, handling interrupts and scheduling tasks automatically from the graphical diagram. The Engineers were able to iterate and optimize the code. AMETEK was very pleased with its MBD process and Embed's contribution to it.