An aircraft flight control disconnect mechanism between the pilot and co-pilot controls, including a pair of concentrically positioned opposed circular jaws, each jaw having either mating tapered teeth or mating tapered openings, which when the jaws are axially separated, disconnects one pilot control from the other and a rotating control sleeve concentrically aligned with and rotatably attached to one of said jaws, the sleeve including a helical cam slot surrounding a fixed roller whereby rotation of the control sleeve moves the said connected jaw toward or away from the adjacent jaw so that the two jaws are free to rotate independent of each other.

An electronic control apparatus comprising: a movable control member; a positional servo loop means including at least one motor means and being operable to maintain the position of said control member at any one of a plurality of positions in the range of movement thereof in accordance with a demand signal; force detection means for detecting a force applied to said control member and for providing to said servo loop means a demand signal which varies in accordance with the magnitude of said applied force.

A method and apparatus automatically associate a sensed mechanical parameter to a range of motor velocity for controlling the rotational velocity of a motor driving a medical instrument. The method and apparatus sense or measure the mechanical parameter whose value, controlled by a human operator, through for example, a footpad, can be measured and converted to a digital signal. The method and apparatus, in response to the measured sensed mechanical parameter, automatically scale the range of parameter values to a new range of motor velocity values thereby adjusting, to the mechanical displacement (force or distance) with which the user is most comfortable. The transformation also provides deadband values around the minimum and maximum motor velocities so that maximum motor velocity is not "chased" and minimum motor velocity is not sensitive to small perturbations due to thermal effects and other events which may affect the mechanical sensor output.

A hand controller system which provides the proper feel of the hand controller during aircraft operation. In both non-redundant and redundant embodiments, torque, and position measurements are made from the hand controller movements and processed to provide a feedback to a control motor in mechanical connection with the hand controller. The system includes self-monitoring of the motor, as well as the signals provided by the position, and torque sensors. Connections are provided from the hand controller system so that cross-coupling may be provided between the pilot's and copilot's hand controllers.

A split detent tactile cueing vehicle control system (10) for a vehicle (11) is provided including an active control inceptor system (12). The active system (12) includes a control inceptor (22) having a plurality of positions and a position sensor (42) that generates a control inceptor position signal. The tactile cueing system (10) also includes a plurality of vehicle performance sensors that generate a plurality of vehicle performance signals. A flight controller (20) is electrically coupled to the position sensor (42) and the plurality of vehicle performance sensors, and generates a control inceptor actuation signal by applying a tactile cueing model having a split detent and in response to the position signal and the plurality of vehicle performance signals. A method of performing the same is also provided.