Device for determining location information and inertial primary references for an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9151620-B2
Application number	US-201313857673-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2013
Priority date	Apr 6, 2012
Publication date	Oct 6, 2015
Grant date	Oct 6, 2015

Abstract

Device for determining location information, primary references consolidated for an aircraft, comprising a chain for determining location information comprising means for measuring radionavigation data, suitable means for consolidating, suitable means for computing parameters and suitable means for consolidating the parameters. The device also comprises a chain for determining inertial primary references comprising means for measuring inertial data, suitable means for consolidating, suitable means for computing parameters and suitable means for consolidating the parameters. The device finally comprises a chain for determining anemo-barometric data comprising means for measuring anemo-barometric data, suitable means for consolidating the measured anemo-barometric data, suitable means for computing parameters, and suitable means for consolidating the reference parameters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for determining location information, inertial primary references and anemo-barometric data consolidated for an aircraft, comprising:
a circuit for determining location information comprising;
radionavigation sensors for measuring radionavigation data;
radionavigation data consolidation means for consolidating the measured radionavigation data;
position parameter computing means for computing aircraft position parameters from the consolidated radionavigation data;
position parameter consolidation means for consolidating the computed position parameters;

a circuit for determining inertial primary references comprising:
inertial measurement sensors for measuring inertial data indicating the movement of the aircraft relative to a terrestrial coordinate system;
inertial data consolidation means for consolidating the measured inertial data;
inertial reference computing means for computing inertial reference parameters of the aircraft from the consolidated inertial data;
inertial reference data consolidation means for consolidating the computed inertial reference parameters;

a circuit for determining anemo-barometric data comprising:
air data measurement sensors for measuring anemo-barometric data indicating the movement of the aircraft relative to the air;
air data consolidation means for consolidating the measured anemo-barometric data;
air data reference computing means for computing anemo-barometric reference parameters of the aircraft from the consolidated anemo-barometric data;
air data parameter consolidation means for consolidating the computed anemo-barometric reference parameters;
wherein the radionavigation data consolidation means, inertial data consolidation means and the air data consolidation means each comprise a plurality of consolidation circuits, each of the consolidation circuits being associated with an index and comprising:
a computation means for each of said circuit for determining location information, said circuitry for determining inertial primary references, and said circuit for determining anemo-barometric data, respectively, each computation means being linked to all of said measurement sensors of the corresponding one of said circuits, each of the computation means comparing the measurements of said measurement sensors of the corresponding one of said circuits to thereby detect malfunctioning measurement sensors;
an ordered storage means for storing the results of the computation of each of the computation means of the others of the plurality of consolidation circuits ranking the results in ascending order of the indices associated with the consolidation circuits, from i+1 to n, and from 1 to i−1, and eliminating the results of the computations of the consolidation circuits for which the measurement sensors are malfunctioning;
a first comparison means in each of the consolidation circuits, performing a comparison between the result of each computation means and the first result of the ordered storage means storing the computation results of the other computation means in the respective consolidation circuit to thereby detect a malfunctioning computation means;
an ordered storage means for storing the results of each of the first comparison means ordering the results of each of the first comparison means in descending order of the indices associated with the consolidation circuits from i−1 to 1, and from n to i+1, and eliminating the results of the first comparison means of the consolidation circuits for which the computation means are malfunctioning; and
a second comparison means in each of the consolidation circuits to compare the results of each of the first comparison means in one consolidation circuit with the result of one of the first comparison means others of the consolidation circuits to thereby detect malfunctioning first comparison means to shutdown the consolidation circuit for which the first comparison means are malfunctioning;
means for hybridizing the inertial data and the radionavigation data; and
means for hybridizing the inertial data and the anemo-barometric data.

2. The device according to claim 1 , in which:
the radionavigation sensors comprise two first logic component sub-means for providing Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements and two different logic component sub-means, each of the first and second logic component sub-means being linked to two different antennas supplying synchronous measurements on the radionavigation data;
the radionavigation data consolidation means for consolidating the measured radionavigation data comprise four radionavigation signal consolidation sub-means making it possible to consolidate the measurements on the radionavigation data;
the position parameter computing means for computing aircraft position parameters comprise two measurement prediction sub-means, the radionavigation consolidation means for consolidating the computed position parameters comprise the same two measurement prediction sub-means, making it possible to compute positions of the aircraft from consolidated inertial data measurements and consolidated radionavigation data measurements;
said device also comprises:
two pilot selectable approach sub-means making it possible to activate, for a given approach, an approach means selected by the pilot, and making it possible to compute deviations relative to a predetermined reference approach trajectory; and
two approach deviation consolidation sub-means making it possible to consolidate the computations of the deviations.

3. The device according to claim 1 , in which:
the means for measuring radionavigation data comprise three first logic component sub-means each linked to one antenna from a set of three antennas supplying synchronous measurements on radionavigation data,
the suitable means for consolidating the measured radionavigation data comprise three radionavigation signal consolidation sub-means for consolidating the measurements on the radionavigation data;
the suitable means for computing aircraft position parameters comprise two measurement prediction sub-means, the suitable means for consolidating the computed position parameters comprise the same two measurement prediction sub-means, for computing positions of the aircraft from consolidated inertial data measurements and consolidated radionavigation data measurements;
said device also comprises:
three pilot consolidated approach sub-means for activating, for a given approach, an approach means selected by the pilot, for computing and consolidating deviations relative to a predetermined reference approach trajectory.

4. The device according to claim 1 , comprising a radionavigation equipment item making it possible to at least one of transmit and receive radio waves observing all the standards used in the radionavigation applications.

5. The device according to claim 1 , comprising two means for detecting movements and accelerations, a dual satellite location receiver, and means for determining the location from the signals received from said dual receiver.

6. The device according to claim 1 , comprising three means for detecting movements and accelerations, a dual satellite location receiver and means for determining the location from the signals received from said dual receiver.

7. The device according to claim 1 , comprising at least one first receiver comprising an antenna and analogue and digital processing means for processing the signals originating from the antenna.

8. The device according to claim 7 , in which the first receiver is chosen from:
a second location signal receiver using the VOR standard comprising a sub-means for receiving a signal in the VHF frequency band, a sub-means for sampling said sign

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Arethens Jean-Pierre
• Bouard Dominique

Classifications

• G06F11/185

  and the voting is itself performed redundantly · CPC title

• G01C21/005 Primary

  with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching (G01C21/30 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01C23/005

  Flight directors (indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32) · CPC title

• G06F11/1487

  using N-version programming · CPC title

• G01C21/10

  by using measurements of speed or acceleration (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title