Inverted-landing aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9511858-B2
Application number	US-201213261813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2012
Priority date	Aug 19, 2011
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

An aircraft defining an upright orientation and an inverted orientation, a ground station; and a control system for remotely controlling the flight of the aircraft. The ground station has an auto-land function that causes the aircraft to invert, stall, and controllably land in the inverted orientation to protect a payload and a rudder extending down from the aircraft. In the upright orientation, the ground station depicts the view from a first aircraft camera. When switching to the inverted orientation: (1) the ground station depicts the view from a second aircraft camera, (2) the aircraft switches the colors of red and green wing lights, extends the ailerons to act as inverted flaps, and (3) the control system adapts a ground station controller for the inverted orientation. The aircraft landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An unmanned aircraft system, comprising:
an aircraft including a wing having an upper surface and a lower surface defining an upright orientation for normal aircraft flight and an inverted orientation for inverted flight, the upper surface being gravitationally above the lower surface while in the upright orientation, and the lower surface being gravitationally above the upper surface while in the inverted orientation;
a remote-control station;
a remote-control control system configured for a user to remotely control the flight of the aircraft using the remote-control station;
a first camera oriented to view downward and forward while the aircraft is in the upright orientation; and
a second camera oriented to view downward and forward while the aircraft is in the inverted orientation;
wherein the remote-control station is provided with an auto-land function that instructs the control system to operate the control surfaces such that the aircraft conducts an inverting maneuver in which the aircraft rotates from the upright orientation to the inverted orientation; and
wherein the control system is configured to relay images from the first camera to the remote-control station while the aircraft is in the upright orientation, and to relay images from the second camera to the remote-control station while the aircraft is in the inverted orientation, and wherein the remote-control station is configured to display the relayed images from the first camera to the user during flight in the upright orientation, and is further configured to display the relayed images from the second camera to the user during flight in the inverted orientation.

2. The unmanned aircraft system of claim 1 , and further comprising a starboard light on a starboard side of the wing and a port light on a port side of the wing, wherein the control system is configured to control the color of the starboard and port lights such that the starboard light emits a first color and the port light emits a second color while the aircraft is in the upright orientation, and such that the starboard light emits the second color and the port light emits the first color while the aircraft is in the inverted orientation.

3. The unmanned aircraft system of claim 1 , wherein the aircraft is configured with ailerons, and wherein the control system is configured to automatically deflect the ailerons to operate as flaps when the aircraft rotates from the upright orientation to the inverted orientation.

4. The unmanned aircraft system of claim 1 , and further comprising a payload extending gravitationally below the wing while the aircraft is in the upright orientation.

5. The unmanned aircraft system of claim 1 , and further comprising landing gear, wherein the landing gear is located above the wing and positioned for landing in the inverted orientation.

6. The unmanned aircraft system of claim 5 , wherein the landing gear is an expanded polypropylene pad located above the wing when the aircraft is in the upright orientation.

7. An unmanned aircraft system, comprising:
an aircraft including a wing having an upper surface and a lower surface defining an upright orientation for normal aircraft flight and an inverted orientation for inverted flight, the upper surface being gravitationally above the lower surface while in the upright orientation, and the lower surface being gravitationally above the upper surface while in the inverted orientation;
a remote-control station;
a remote-control control system configured for a user to remotely control the flight of the aircraft using the remote-control station; and
a set of one or more control surfaces configured to control the flight of the aircraft;
wherein the remote-control station is provided with an auto-land function that instructs the control system to operate the control surfaces such that the aircraft conducts an inverting maneuver in which the aircraft rotates from the upright orientation to the inverted orientation;
wherein the remote-control station is configured with a controller that generates signals to control the one or more control surfaces; and
wherein the control system is configured to adapt the control signals such that a user of the controller does not need to adapt use of the controller based on the orientation of the aircraft.

8. An unmanned aircraft system, comprising:
an aircraft including a wing having an upper surface and a lower surface defining an upright orientation for normal aircraft flight and an inverted orientation for inverted flight, the upper surface being gravitationally above the lower surface while in the upright orientation, and the lower surface being gravitationally above the upper surface while in the inverted orientation;
a remote-control station;
a remote-control control system configured for a user to remotely control the flight of the aircraft using the remote-control station; and
a fuselage and an empennage, the empennage including a rudder that extends vertically downward below the fuselage while the aircraft is in the upright orientations;
wherein the remote-control station is provided with an auto-land function that instructs the control system to operate the control surfaces such that the aircraft conducts an inverting maneuver in which the aircraft rotates from the upright orientation to the inverted orientation.

9. A method of landing an aircraft at a location for landing, the aircraft having a wing including an upper surface and a lower surface defining an upright orientation for normal aircraft flight, and an inverted orientation for inverted flight, the upper surface being gravitationally above the lower surface while in the upright orientation, and the lower surface being gravitationally above the upper surface while in the inverted orientation, comprising:
(a) controlling the operation of one or more control surfaces to approach the landing location while the aircraft is flying in the upright orientation;
(b) controlling the operation of the one or more control surfaces to invert the aircraft such that it is controllably moving in an inverted orientation; and
(c) controlling the operation of the one or more control surfaces to descend the aircraft to the landing location in the inverted orientation
wherein the aircraft is an unmanned aircraft;
wherein in steps (a), (b) and (c), a user operates a remote-control station configured for remotely controlling the operation of the one or more control surfaces;
wherein the aircraft includes a first camera oriented to view downward and forward while the aircraft is in the upright orientation, and a second camera oriented to view downward and forward while the aircraft is in the inverted orientation;
wherein step (a) includes the step of observing images from the first camera on the remote-control station; and
wherein step (c) includes the step of observing images from the second camera on the remote-control station.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein step (b) includes controlling the operation of the one or more control surfaces to roll into the inverted orientation.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein step (b) includes controlling the operation of the one or more control surfaces to pitch into the inverted orientation.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein step (b) comprises activating an auto-land function that instructs the control system to automatically conduct an inverting maneuver in which the aircraft rotates from the upright orientation to the inverted orientation.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the aircraft includes a starboard light emitting a first color on a starboard side of the wing and a port light emitting

Assignees

• Fisher Christopher E
• Szarek Thomas Robert
• Mcallister Justin B
• Belik Pavel
• Aerovironment Inc

Inventors

• Fisher Christopher E
• Szarek Thomas Robert
• Mcallister Justin B
• Belik Pavel

Classifications

• B64U2101/30

  for imaging, photography or videography · CPC title

• B64U2201/20

  Remote controls · CPC title

• G01C5/005 Primary

  altimeters for aircraft (G01C5/02, G01C5/06 take precedence) · CPC title

• B64C39/024 Primary

  of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV · CPC title

• B64C2201/127

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic