Aircraft including rotary wings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11537148-B2
Application number	US-201916731956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2019
Priority date	Mar 12, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

An aircraft includes first units each including a first sensor, a rotary wing, a driver, and a first drive controller. The first drive controller is configured to generate a drive signal of the rotary wing on the basis of a flying route of the aircraft and a control law based on a flying state detected by the first sensor, and output the drive signal to the driver configured to drive the rotary wing. The control laws of the respective first drive controllers are equal to each other between the first units. The first drive controllers are each configured to generate the drive signals that correspond to all of the first units. The drivers are each configured to drive the corresponding rotary wing on the basis of corresponding one of the drive signals that correspond to all of the first units and that are generated by the first drive controllers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aircraft comprising
a first unit including:
a first sensor configured to detect a flying state of the aircraft, the flying state including a flying position of the aircraft and an orientation of movement of the aircraft;
a first rotary wing operative to provide the aircraft with lift, thrust, or both;
a first driver configured to drive the first rotary wing based on a first drive signal;
a first communicator;
a first memory; and
a first processor;
a second unit including:
a second sensor configured to detect the flying state of the aircraft;
a second rotary wing operative to provide the aircraft with lift, thrust, or both;
a second driver configured to drive the second rotary wing based on a second drive signal;
a second communicator;
a second memory; and
a second processor; and
a third unit including:
a third sensor configured to detect the flying state of the aircraft;
a third communicator;
a third memory; and
a third processor,
wherein the first and second units are disposed at positions that are different from each other in planar view,
wherein the first to third units are configured to communicate with each other,
wherein each of the first to third memories stores same first predetermined control information and same second predetermined control information, the first predetermined control information is a transfer function for generating a target flying route of the aircraft from the flying state and a destination, the second predetermined control information is a transfer function for generating the first and second drive signals from the flying state and the target flying route,
wherein the third unit is configured to:
when the third communicator receives the destination from other than the first and second units, i) generate the target flying route by the third processor using the first predetermined control information based on the received destination and the flying state detected by the third sensor, ii) transmit the target flying route generated by the third processor to the first and second units, iii) generate the first and second drive signals by the third processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the third sensor and the target flying route generated by the third processor, and iv) transmit the first and second drive signals generated by the third processor to the first and second units; and
when the third unit receives the destination from the first or second unit in a case where the third communicator does not receive the destination from other than the first and second units, i) generate the target flying route by the third processor using the first predetermined control information based on the destination received from the first or second unit and the flying state detected by the third sensor, ii) transmit the target flying route generated by the third processor to the first and second units, iii) generate the first and second drive signals by the third processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the third sensor and the target flying route generated by the third processor, and iv) transmit the first and second drive signals generated by the third processor to the first and second units,
wherein the first unit is configured to:
when the first communicator receives the destination from other than the second and third units, transmit the received destination to the third unit;
when the first unit receives the target flying route from the third unit, store the received target flying route to the first memory;
when the first unit receives the first drive signal from the third unit, drive the first driver based on the received first drive signal from the third unit;
when the first unit does not receive the first drive signal from the third unit, i) generate the first and second drive signals by the first processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the first sensor and the target flying route stored in the first memory, ii) drive the first driver based on the first drive signal generated by the first processor, and iii) transmit the second drive signal generated by the first processor to the second unit; and
when the first communicator receives the destination from other than the second and third units in a case where the first unit does not receive the first drive signal from the third unit, i) generate the target flying route by the first processor using the first predetermined control information based on the destination received by the first communicator and the flying state detected by the first sensor, ii) replace the target flying route stored by the first memory with the target flying route generated by the first processor, iii) transmit the target flying route generated by the first processor to the second unit, iv) generate the first and second drive signals by the first processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the first sensor and the target flying route stored by the first memory, v) drive the first driver based on the first drive signal generated by the first processor, and vi) transmit the second drive signal generated by the first processor to the second unit, and
wherein the second unit is configured to:
when the second communicator receives the destination from other than the first and third units, transmit the received destination to the third unit;
when the second unit receives the target flying route from the first or third unit, store the received target flying route to the second memory;
when the second unit receives the second drive signal from the third unit, drive the second driver based on the received second drive signal from the third unit;
when the second unit receives the second drive signal from the first unit in a case where the second unit does not receive the second drive signal from the third unit, drive the second driver based on the received second drive signal from the first unit;
when the second unit does not receive the second drive signal from the first and third units, i) generate the second drive signal by the second processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the second sensor and the target flying route stored by the second memory, and ii) drive the second driver based on the second drive signal generated by the second processor; and
when the second communicator receives the destination from other than the first and third units in a case where the second unit does not receive the second drive signal from the first and third units, i) generate the target flying route by the second processor using the first predetermined control information based on the destination received by the second communicator and the flying state detected by the second sensor, ii) replace the target flying route stored by the second memory with the target flying route generated by the second processor, iii) generate the second drive signal by the second processor using the second predetermined control information based on the flying state detected by the second sensor and the target flying route stored by the second memory, and iv) drive the second driver based on the second drive signal generated by the second processor.

Assignees

• Subaru Corp

Inventors

• Hayakawa Masahito

Classifications

• B64C27/12

  Rotor drives · CPC title

• B64C2201/027

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• G05D1/085

  to ensure coordination between different movements · CPC title

• G05D1/063

  by acting on the motors · CPC title

• B64C2201/024

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic