Geometry-based flight control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9908616-B1
Application number	US-201715593819-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 12, 2017
Priority date	May 12, 2017
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A geometry-based flight control system is disclosed. The geometry-based flight control system receives a set of inputs associated with a requested set of forces and moments to be applied to the aircraft and computes an optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameters to achieve to an extent practical the requested forces and moments. Computing the optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameters includes taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness of one or more actuators based on a dynamic state of the aircraft. For example, the dynamic state may comprise an angle of a tiltwing of the aircraft or an angle of a tilt rotor of the aircraft.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling flight of an aircraft, comprising:
receiving a set of inceptor inputs associated with a requested set of forces and moments to be applied to the aircraft;
receiving a set of sensor inputs reflecting a current dynamic state of the aircraft, the dynamic state including aircraft airspeed and wing tilt angle;
computing an optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameters to achieve to an extent practical the requested forces and moments, including by taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness of one or more actuators based on the current dynamic state of the aircraft, wherein the optimal mix of actuators includes one or more rotors and for each rotor taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness includes using at least a subset of the sensor inputs to model a current effectiveness of the rotor and adding a linearization of said model to a rotor geometry matrix, and wherein computing the optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameter includes using the rotor geometry matrix to determine the effect of said one or more rotors under various combinations of actuators and associated parameters given the current dynamic state of the aircraft; and
providing an output comprising for each actuator in the optimal mix a corresponding set of one or more control signals associated with the set of actuator parameters computed for that actuator.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic state of the aircraft comprises a rotor tilt angle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimal mix is computed at least in part by formulating an associated optimization problem as a quadratic program.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimal mix is computed at least in part by formulating an associated optimization problem comprising a rotor performance matrix, control surface performance matrix, and the requested set of forces and moments to be applied to the aircraft.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the optimal mix includes determining a set of thrusts for rotors of the aircraft and a set of angles for control surfaces of the aircraft.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-linear model for actuator performance is determined based on spatial rotation information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimal mix is computed at least in part by determining a model for control surface performance based on the dynamic state of the aircraft.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the optimal mix includes optimizing for an equal utilization of all rotors relative to their maximum and minimum thrusts.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the optimal mix includes optimizing for an equal utilization of all control surfaces relative to their maximum and minimum possible angles.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the optimal mix includes determining weights to prioritize roll, pitch, yaw, and thrusts in relation to each other.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the optimal mix includes monitoring actuator health and adjusting an associated optimization problem accordingly.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein a wing tilt angle of the aircraft is determined based on past actuator commands.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein aircraft airspeed is interpolated based on a wing tilt angle of the aircraft.

14. An aircraft flight control system, comprising:
an interface configured to receive:
a set of inceptor inputs associated with a requested set of forces and moments to be applied to the aircraft; and
a set of sensor inputs reflecting a current dynamic state of the aircraft, the dynamic state including aircraft airspeed and wing tilt angle; and

a processor coupled to the interface and configured to:
compute an optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameters to achieve to an extent practical the requested forces and moments, including by taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness of one or more actuators based on the current dynamic state of the aircraft, wherein the optimal mix of actuators includes one or more rotors and for each rotor taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness includes using at least a subset of the sensor inputs to model a current effectiveness of the rotor and adding a linearization of said model to a rotor geometry matrix, and wherein computing the optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameter includes using the rotor geometry matrix to determine the effect of said one or more rotors under various combinations of actuators and associated parameters given the current dynamic state of the aircraft; and
provide an output comprising for each actuator in the optimal mix a corresponding set of one or more control signals associated with the set of actuator parameters computed for that actuator.

15. A computer program product to control flight of an aircraft, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:
receiving a set of inceptor inputs associated with a requested set of forces and moments to be applied to the aircraft;
receiving a set of sensor inputs reflecting a current dynamic state of the aircraft, the dynamic state including aircraft airspeed and wing tilt angle;
computing an optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameters to achieve to an extent practical the requested forces and moments, including by taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness of one or more actuators based on the current dynamic state of the aircraft, wherein the optimal mix of actuators includes one or more rotors and for each rotor taking into consideration dynamically varying effectiveness includes using at least a subset of the sensor inputs to model a current effectiveness of the rotor and adding a linearization of said model to a rotor geometry matrix, and wherein computing the optimal mix of actuators and associated actuator parameter includes using the rotor geometry matrix to determine the effect of said one or more rotors under various combinations of actuators and associated parameters given the current dynamic state of the aircraft; and
providing an output comprising for each actuator in the optimal mix a corresponding set of one or more control signals associated with the set of actuator parameters computed for that actuator.

Assignees

• Kitty Hawk Corp

Inventors

• Horn Gregory Mainland
• Lind Damon Vander

Classifications

• B64D2045/0085

  Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration · CPC title

• B64D45/00

  Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• B64D31/06

  actuated automatically · CPC title

• B64C15/12

  the power plant being tiltable · CPC title

• G05D1/0808

  specially adapted for aircraft · CPC title