USU studies ways to keep airplanes safe
Utah State University researchers in the electrical engineering department are researching methods to detect faulty wiring in aging aircrafts to promote safe flying. The research will probably lead to a patent.
Deekshit Dosibhatla, a graduate student in electrical engineering, said as aircrafts age wiring begins to fray and is very difficult to detect.
“We have come up with three methods [to detect the faulty wiring] that have better accuracies, are less-expensive and less-complex than older classical methods,” Dosibhatla said.
“The new techniques will find the position of where the fault is so repair can be done before an aircraft fails,” he said.
The technique uses the spread spectrum technique which suppresses and combats the adverse effects of jamming and interference, Dosibhatla said.
Jacob Gunther, a professor of electrical engineering, said the signals researchers are using to find out where the fraying in the wiring is, are “signals similar to that of a mobile phone.”
“We are within centimeters from finding where the fraying is occurring,” Gunther said.
A company has been doing similar types of research with DSL wiring and are within meters of the fraying, he said.
Dosibhatla said this technology is very practical, and if it works perfectly it will be easy to figure out problems.
Dosibhatla, who received his undergraduate degree in electrical and wireless communication at Andhra University, India, has been doing research for this project for the past five months on simulators at USU.
“It has been a very nice experience to work with Dr. Furse and Dr. Gunther. They are very encouraging not only on the research side, but also on the personal side, too.”
Gunther said USU has been really good with funding him to start research, especially the dean of the electrical engineering department.
Cynthia Furse, professor of electrical engineering at USU, has played a major role in this research project and published a feature article on the new technology in Spectrum magazine.