Navigation aids for unmanned aerial systems in a GPS-denied environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11099582-B2
Application number	US-201916707813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2019
Priority date	Jul 5, 2016
Publication date	Aug 24, 2021
Grant date	Aug 24, 2021

Abstract

Example navigation aids for increasing the accuracy of a navigation system are disclosed herein. An example method disclosed herein identifying, with an aircraft intent description language (AIDL) aid, an AIDL instruction as associated with a first dynamic activity level of a plurality of dynamic activity levels and determining, with the AIDL aid, an aircraft state to be affected by the AIDL instruction. The example method also includes changing, with a navigation filter, a weighting scheme for a measurement of the aircraft state obtained by an inertial navigation system (INS) of the aircraft and estimating, with the navigation filter, a trajectory of the aircraft based on the weighting scheme and the measurement.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aircraft comprising:
an inertial navigation system (INS) to obtain a measurement of an aircraft state;
an aircraft intent description language (AIDL) aid to identify an AIDL instruction of an aircraft as associated with a dynamic activity level, the aircraft state affected by the AIDL instruction;
a navigation filter to:
change a weighting scheme for the measurement of the aircraft state; and
estimate a location of the aircraft based on the weighting scheme and the measurement; and

a flight control system to calculate and execute flight control commands to fly the aircraft based on the estimated location and the AIDL instruction.

2. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the navigation filter is to change the weighting scheme for the measurement by assigning a lower weight to the measurement if the dynamic activity level is a high dynamic activity level.

3. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the measurement is a first measurement, and wherein the navigation filter is to generate an internal dynamic model of the aircraft and determine a second measurement for the aircraft state based on the internal dynamic model.

4. The aircraft of claim 3 , wherein the navigation filter is to change the weighting scheme for the first measurement by assigning a higher weight to the second measurement.

5. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the navigation filter includes an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), and wherein the EKF is to increase or decrease a covariance factor of the measurement in at least one of a process noise matrix Q or a measurement noise matrix R of the EKF.

6. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the navigation filter is to determine when the aircraft is in a GPS-denied environment.

7. The aircraft of claim 6 , wherein the navigation filter is to change the weighting scheme for the measurement in response to the aircraft being in the GPS-denied environment.

8. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the navigation filter estimates the location of the aircraft without an absolute position measurement.

9. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the INS includes at least one of an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a static pressure sensor, a dynamic pressure sensor, or a temperature sensor.

10. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
identify an aircraft intent description language (AIDL) instruction as associated with a high dynamic activity;
determine an aircraft state to be affected by the AIDL instruction;
change a weighting scheme for a measurement of the aircraft state obtained by an inertial navigation system (INS) of an aircraft;
estimate a trajectory of the aircraft based on the weighting scheme and the measurement; and
calculate and execute flight control commands to fly the aircraft based on the estimated trajectory and the AIDL instruction.

11. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to change the weighting scheme for the measurement by assigning a lower weight to the measurement.

12. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the measurement is a first measurement, the instructions further to cause the machine to:
generate an internal dynamic model of the aircraft; and
determine a second measurement for the aircraft state based on the internal dynamic model.

13. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to change the weighting scheme for the first measurement by assigning a higher weight to the second measurement.

14. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed, are to identify the AIDL instruction as the high dynamic activity by:
comparing a maneuver associated with the AIDL instruction to a threshold; and
identifying the AIDL instruction as the high dynamic activity based on the comparison.

15. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine when the aircraft is in a GPS-denied environment.

16. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to change the weighting scheme for the measurement in response to the aircraft being in the GPS-denied environment.

17. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to estimate the trajectory of the aircraft without an absolute position measurement.

18. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the aircraft is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

19. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic activity level is a first dynamic activity level of a plurality of dynamic activity levels associated with a high dynamic activity level, the plurality of dynamic activity levels including a second dynamic activity level associated with a low dynamic activity.

20. The aircraft of claim 1 , wherein the aircraft is an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Hardt Michael W
• Gallo Eduardo
• Navarro Francisco A
• Bushnell Glenn Scott

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

  autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS] · CPC title

• G01C21/188

  for accumulated errors, e.g. by coupling inertial systems with absolute positioning systems · CPC title

• G01C21/165

  combined with non-inertial navigation instruments · CPC title

• B64U10/25

  Fixed-wing aircraft (VTOL aircraft B64U10/20) · CPC title

• G01C23/00

  Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration · CPC title