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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

Electromechanical Actuator Design and Control Strategy for

UAV Landing Gear

Tao Yang*, Jiufeng Wu and Xinlei Cao

China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, Beijing, 100074, China

*Corresponding author email: sdyangtao@qq.com

Abstract. UAV is becoming more and more prevalent not only in the military field but also in
the civilian field, whose flight safety and performance is of top concern. The landing gear system
is undoubtedly a determining factor in UAV taking off and landing. In recent days, the all-electric
trend in UAV design is not irreversible. As a result, the hydraulic actuator is replaced by EMA
in the landing system. The electromechanical actuator for UAV landing system is designed in
this paper. The detailed actuator system design is introduced in the beginning. And then
communication protocol between the actuator system and the flight control computer is
presented, serving as the basis of control strategy, which is the main content to study. The control
strategy mainly deals with normal landing and emergency landing process. At last, the
conclusion part summarizes its applications. The EMA devised in this paper and its
corresponding control strategy provide a new idea in the landing system design of UAV.
Keywords: Electromechanical actuator; UAV; Landing gear.

1. Introduction
UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is an aircraft which takes off and flies autonomously without
manipulator. It can be used once or repeatedly by recovery technology [1]. And also, in order to complete
different missions, it carries lethal weapons or non-lethal payloads. With revolution of international
military affairs, development of national defence science and technology as well as application in the
civilian field, UAV has successfully won a place in the aviation field because of its advantages such as
outstanding mission performance, low development cost, low energy consumption, zero casualties and
so on [2]. There is no denying that UAV enjoys a vast potential for future development. For military
UAVs, the flight mission calls for long distance and long endurance, requiring higher performance of
the airborne equipment and actuators [3]. As for large and medium-sized UAV, the taking off and
landing is conducted by the ground sliding with the landing gear [4]. Traditionally, the landing gear
system adopts the hydraulic source and utilizes the hydraulic actuator as its actuator [5]. With all-electric
development process and continuously improving requirements, the hydraulic landing system constrains
UAV for pursuing greater performance, as a consequence of its disadvantages such as a large amount
of system accessories as well as increase of weight and fuel consumption [6]. It is urgent to develop an
EMA for the landing system as a substitute. In this context, EMA (Electromechanical Actuator) is
designed for UAV landing system in this paper. Dual redundancy technology is adopted in the actuator
system design for higher reliability and better performance. In order to deal with all kinds of situations
which the landing system will encounter during operation, the corresponding control strategy is also
quite important.

2. Actuator System Design

The actuator system is made up of one controller and three actuators, namely, actuators for the nose gear,

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

the left main gear and the right main gear respectively. The controller is the control core, and the actuator
drives the landing gear to drop or retract [7]. In this part, working principle of the actuator system is
introduced first. And then the controller design and the actuator design is presented one by one.

2.1. Working Principle

Landing
Gears

Limit
Switches

Controller
LVDT
U、V、W
Drive Module HALLA、B、C Nose Gear
For Nose Gear U、V、W Actuator Limit Switch
HALLA、B、C

Flight RS422A
Control
Computer RS422B Control LVDT
Drive Module U、V、W
Module HALLA、B、C Left Main Gear
For Left
U、V、W Actuator Limit Switch
Main Gear HALLA、B、C
+28V

LVDT
Drive Module U、V、W
HALLA、B、C Right Main Gear
For Right
+270V U、V、W Actuator Limit Switch
Main Gear HALLA、B、C

Figure 1. Block Diagram of Actuator System

As shown in Figure 1, the actuator system communicates with the flight control computer via two RS422
interfaces, which work together at the same time. One interface serves as the backup of the other, thus
realizing dual redundancy. According to the command transmitted by the flight control computer, the
actuator system reacts in real time, driving the landing gears to drop or retract while reporting the system
status and faults back.
The controller design is in the form of dual redundancy. The control module and three drive modules
for different landing gears are all main-backup design. There are two control cores working at the same
time in the control module. One control core is used in the main channel connecting to the main RS422
port while the other is used in the backup channel connecting to the backup RS422 port. Two control
cores don’t communicate directly for information interaction between them are complex. As a result,
there is a control management unit in charge of cooperation. The drive module for landing gear is also
of dual redundancy, with the main drive channel and backup channel. The actuator is dual-redundant in
the way which the motor is in the form of two windings and the feedback transducers are LVDT (Linear
Variable Differential Transformer) and limit switches. LVDT indicates the real-time position and the
limit switches show where the actuator reaches the desired position.
The actuator system can realize normal dropping or retracting and monitors the working status of landing
gears in real time. When the flight control computer transmits dropping or landing command, the brake
mounted coaxially with motor is unlocked. And then the actuator system conducts gear dropping or
landing operation. When the indications show that the landing gear drops or retracts successfully, the
actuator system stops operation and locks the brake. If there is any fault in process, the fault can be
isolated via the fault protection and redundancy switching technology, which is applied in the actuator
system. At the same time, the fault status reports back to the flight control computer.

2.2. Controller Design

The controller receives control command from the flight control computer via RS422 port. And then it
instructs the drive module to drive the actuators, thus conducting dropping or retracting of different
landing gears. The controller is mainly made up of two parts, the control part and the drive part as well
as corresponding power supply. As shown in Figure 2, the controller design is divided into three kinds
of boards, the control board, the drive board and the power board. The control module settles in the
control board. There are three drive boards for nose gear, left main gear and right main gear respectively.

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

The power board offers power supply for the whole system. The power source is +28V used for the
control part and +270V used for the drive part.

Control Board Power Board

Control core of the Offer power supply for
actuator system the actuator system

+270V

Drive Board Drive Board Drive Board

for Nose Gear for Left Main Gear for Right Main Gear
Drive the actuator Drive the actuator Drive the actuator
of the nose gear of the left main gear of the right main gear

Figure 2. Hardware Design of Controller

2.2.1. Control Board. The control board conducts functions such as communication with the flight
control computer, status monitoring, redundancy management, position feedback acquisition and so on.
There are two control units in the control board, the main control unit and the backup control unit, which
adopt the same hardware design. There are independent peripheral circuits and auxiliary power supplies.
The main control unit communicates with the flight control system via main RS422 port with the backup
unit via the backup RS422 port. Although data flows from two ports together, data in the main RS422
port is adopted prior to data in the backup RS422 port. Only under the circumstances that the main
RS422 communication suffers from failure, the backup RS422 port becomes regular. In addition, the
control board comprises the acquisition circuit of limit switch and feedback position, redundancy
switching circuit, data storage circuit and so on.

2.2.2. Drive Board. The drive board is in charge of motor driving. In order to eliminate interference
within the control board and the drive board, the electrical isolation is conducted by using the
photoelectric coupler and isolated operational amplifier between the high voltage end and low voltage
end. The drive boards for different actuators are the same, and there are two drive modules in the drive
board for dual redundancy, namely the main drive module and the backup drive module. Each drive
module adopts the integrated power drive module. The auxiliary power offers power supply
independently. And both drive modules can enable or disable output by certain setup. The enabling
status between two drive modules is interlocked. In this way, when the main drive module is at work,
the backup drive module is standby, and vice versa.

2.3. Actuator Design

The actuator for landing gears is made up of double-winding motor, transmission mechanism, brake,
limit switch and a linear displacement sensor. The double-winding motor is brushless DC motor, with
two independent sets of windings and Hall sensors. The actuator needs to operate in linear motion for
dropping or retracting of landing gears. On the basis of high reliability and small size, the ballscrew is
selected as the main transmission mechanism. As a consequence of low speed requirement, a two-stage
gear drive transmission is added between the ballscrew and the motor to enhance output thrust of the
actuator.

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

Motor

Gear

Ballscrew

Figure 3. Schematic of Transmission Mechanism

As shown in Figure 3, the transmission mechanism works in the form that the motor drives the gear to
rotate and then the gear drives the ballscrew to work. The brake which is locked when power is off locks
the actuator when the landing gear drops or retracts successfully in order to ensure safety. The lock force
is designed twice as much as nominal force of the actuator. The motor can work three times overload of
the nominal force for a short time. Ever if the brake can’t be unlocked, the actuator can still drop the
landing gear successfully.
There are two limit switches in the landing gear system. One is mounted in the actuator. It can decide
whether the landing gear is retracted successfully by detecting the position of screw nut. The other one
is mounted in the landing gear to indicate when the landing gear drops successfully. The actuator
position is indicated by the linear displacement sensor in real time, showing whether the landing gear is
retracted or dropped successfully. The actuator works in the environment with strong vibration. As a
result, the non-contact LVDT with long life is selected as the linear sensor in this design.

3. Communication Protocol
The actuator system communicates with the flight control computer via dual-redundant RS422 ports.
The communication protocol is pretty important for information interaction between two devices, which
has to contain various kinds of command, status and fault for control strategy of UAV landing gear [8].
The communication is in the periodical mode. The flight control computer and the actuator system
transmits its data respectively in certain period. The communication protocol consists of two parts,
namely, the downstream command and the upstream data.

3.1. Downstream Command

Data format of the downstream command is as follows: 1 bit start bit, 8 bits data bits, 1 bit stop bit and
1 bit old-even check bit with 115200 bps as the transmission baud rate. As listed in Table 1, the
downstream command from the flight control computer begins with frame head which indicates it is a
data frame for the actuator system. And then following it, it is the frame count. The downstream
command mainly comprises landing command, authorized self-test command, emergency operation
command and work mode setup. The detailed description of each command is listed in Table 1. At last,
in order to validate the data, the checksum is added in the end of the data frame.
Table 1. Downstream command
No. Item Contents Description
1 Frame Head 0xEB09 Indicating a data frame
2 Frame Count 0 ~ 255 Numbers of data package
0b00: No operation
Landing command
3 Landing Command 0b01: Retract
for three landing gears
0b10: Drop
Authorized Self-test 0x00: No operation Decide whether the actuator system
4
Command 0x01: Conduct Self-test conducts self-test or not
Emergency Operation 0b00: No Operation Emergency operation command
5
Command 0b01: Retract for three landing gears
0xAA: Flight Mode Work mode instruction
6 Work Mode Setup
0x55: Ground Mode for the actuator system
7 Checksum 0 ~ 255 Lower 8-bit of data Sum up

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

3.2. Upstream Data

Data format and transmission baud rate of the upstream data is same as that of downstream command.
As listed in Table 2, there is also the frame head, frame count and checksum in the upstream data
transmitted by the actuator system. The upstream data mainly includes status feedback of landing gears,
redundancy status, fault status words, system status word, self-test status and emergency operation status.
Table 2. Upstream data
No. Item Contents Description
1 Frame Head 0xEB09 Indicating a data frame
2 Frame Count 0 ~ 255 Numbers of data package
Nose Gear 0x00: No Operation
3 Status indication of nose gear
Status Feedback 0x11: Retracting
Left Main Gear 0x12: Successful Retracting
4 Status indication of left main gear
Status Feedback 0x13: Abnormal Retracting
0x21: Dropping
Right Main Gear
5 0x22: Successful Dropping Status indication of right main gear
Status Feedback
0x23: Abnormal Dropping
0b00: Main Channel Redundancy status of one control
6 Redundancy Status
0b01: Backup Channel module and three drive modules
0: Normal Control module fault and
7 Fault Status Word#1
1: Fault overcurrent fault of drive mode
0: Normal
8 Fault Status Word#2 Hall fault of drive mode
1: Fault
0b00: Normal
Fault status of three
9 Fault Status Word#3 0b01: Secondary Fault
landing gear actuator
0b10: Primary Fault
10 System Status Word COM Status &Work Mode Status indication of actuator system
0x00: No Operation
11 Self-test Status 0x11: Successful Self-test Self-test result of actuator system
0x12: Self-test Failed
0b00: No Operation
Emergency 0b01: In Operation Emergency operation status
12
Operation Status 0b10: Successful Operation of three landing gear actuator
0b11: Operation Failed
13 Checksum 0 ~ 255 Lower 8-bit of data Sum up

4. Control Strategy
The actuator system is a typical servo system. Once receiving command from the control computer, the
actuator reacts as the control computer instructs it to. The control strategy for the UAV landing gear
mainly studies on landing or dropping of landing gears. And there are the landing operation and the
emergency operation. The landing operation is the normal landing or dropping process while the
emergency operation deals with special cases when the normal process is not available [9].

4.1. Landing Operation

As shown in Figure 4, when the actuator system receives the dropping or landing command from the
control computer continuously, the brake will be unlocked and the actuator commences operation with
status reporting back to the control computer. Within 30 seconds, the controller in the actuator system
judges whether the dropping or landing is successful or not according to the limit switch and LVDT. If
the operation is conducted successfully, the controller reports the operation result. Otherwise, the
controller reports the corresponding fault which leads to operation failure. No matter what happens after
30 seconds since the actuator begins to operate, the actuator will stop operation and the brake is locked
at the same time, waiting for further instructions [10].

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

Emergency Operation

Begin
Landing Operation

Begin
Emergency N
Operation
Command?

Y
Dropping or landing N
Command？ Unlock the Brake
Output of Both Drive Modules
Y Report Status

N
Unlock the Brake
Commence Operation
Report Status Successful N Operation Time
Landing? over 20s？

N Y Y

Successful Dropping N Operation Time Report Successful Report Operation Failure

or Landing? over 30s? Operation Wait for Further Command

Y Y
No Emergency
N Operation
Report
Report Fault Command？
Operation Result

Stop Operation Both Drive Modules Stop Functioning

Lock the Brake Stop Operation
Lock the Brake

End End

Figure 4. Flow Chart of Different Landing Operations

4.2. Emergency Operation

The emergency operation aims at emergency landing and its process is also shown in Figure 4.
Emergency operation command for one certain actuator is initiated by the flight control computer on
condition that it receives status of abnormal retracting, abnormal dropping or primary fault which lasts
for more than 5 seconds [11]. And then the flight control computer takes action and transmits emergency
operation command. Upon reception of emergency operation command from the control computer
continuously, the brake will be unlocked and the main and backup drive module in the actuator system
work together at the same time to secure stronger driving force to deal with unexpected landing or
retracting process. The operation status is also sent back to the control computer. Within 20 seconds, the
actuator controller system judges whether emergency landing is successful or not according to the limit
switch and LVDT. If the emergency operation is completed, the controller reports the successful
operation. At this time, only after the actuator system receives the no emergency operation command
from the flight control computer, can it cut off output of both drive modules. The actuator will stop
operation with brake locked. However, if the emergency operation fails, the controller reports operation
failure. Operation is stopped and the brake is locked. The actuator system has to wait for downstream
command and then conduct next operation.

4.3. Operation Comparison

As for normal landing operation, the actuator system plays a deciding role in the moment when the
actuator stops operation, the initiative is taken by itself. What’s more, if there are some undesirable
results in normal landing operation, the flight control computer can turn to the emergency operation for
help. In case of emergency, the coresponding operation is designed, which is the ultimate operation of
the actuator system. As a result, to avoid landing failure led by the actuator system’s misoperation, the
decision-making right of stopping operation is given to the flight control computer.

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CCME2021 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

5. Experimental Test
As shown in Fiugre 5, the electromechanical actuator designed in this paper is tested in the elastic force
test bench to simulate all the working conditions which it may encounter with in practice and verify the
control stategy. A testing system acts as the role of the flight control computer, transmitting command
and conducting the landing operation. The normal landing operation is successfully completed every
time when the actuator system receives the coresponding command. The tests is conducted 100 times
and the success rate is 100%. As for the emergency operation, it is kind of destructive test. The test is
only conducted 5 times. The actuator is able to overcome the difficulites which dose not encounter in
the normal landing process. The result shows that the actuator system can work properly in case of
emergency.

Figure 5. Experimental Test Setup

6. Conclusion
The hydraulic actuator is replaced by EMA in the landing system, with the process of all-electric UAV.
According to the statistic data, the cost of the electromechanical actuator designed in this paper is
reduced to 60% of the hydraulic actuator. At the same time, the dynamic performance is increased by
30%. Undoubtedly, there are a great many advantages in this upgrading, to list a few, low cost, high
performance, high reliability, compact structure, easy maintenance, and so on. Thus, the safety of the
flight mission with long distance and endurance is ensured. The dual-redundant EMA is designed, and
the control strategy for landing gear is presented in this paper. Several ground tests are conducted as
mentioned above in the experimental test part. Both the normal landing and the emergency landing
process are simulated. The ground tests prove that the EMA designed in this paper is feasible and flexible.
And the control strategy is appropriate in different working conditions. However, the real performance
has to be verified further to see whether the EMA and control strategy can pass the practical flight tests.

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Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2218 (2022) 012080 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2218/1/012080

[8] Khapane P D 2003 Simulation of Asymmetric Landing and Typical Ground Maneuvers for Large
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