Tail-sitter flight management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9971354-B2
Application number	US-201514734537-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2015
Priority date	Jun 10, 2014
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

A system and method for controlling flight of an aircraft having a propeller, memory and a processor includes receiving one or more signals indicative of a flight plan comprising a plurality of waypoints; determining information indicative of a trajectory between the plurality of waypoints; determining information indicative of vehicle attitude commands; determining information indicative of flight control command signals; and determining an error between sensed vehicle states and the vehicle attitude commands.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling flight of an autonomous tail-sitter aircraft through a flight transition, comprising:
receiving, with a processor, one or more signals indicative of a flight plan comprising a plurality of waypoints along the flight transition;
determining, with a first module, a trajectory between the plurality of waypoints;
determining, with a second module, vehicle attitude commands for the trajectory;
determining, with controller third module, flight control command signals for the information indicative of vehicle attitude commands;
implementing the flight control command signals at the aircraft to control the flight of the aircraft through the flight transition from a rotor-borne flight state in which a propeller of the aircraft provides lift to the aircraft in a vertical orientation of the aircraft to the wing-borne flight state in which the propeller provides a forward thrust to the aircraft in a horizontal orientation of the aircraft;
determining via a sensor, a difference between the vehicle attitude commands and a response of the aircraft; and
providing the difference as input to the second module and as input to the third module to reduce the difference to traverse the trajectory.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the difference between the vehicle attitude commands and the response of the aircraft further comprises determining signals indicative of an error between sensed vehicle states and the vehicle attitude commands.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the trajectory further comprises determining at least one of an aircraft velocity, aircraft attitude, and aircraft position.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving sensor information related to a deviation of the aircraft from the trajectory; and
determining a transition trajectory in response to the receiving of the information related to a deviation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the trajectory further comprises receiving signals indicative of data from real-time terrain and obstacle sensors.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the vehicle attitude commands based on the trajectory and location of the aircraft.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the flight control command signals further comprises determining desired vehicle attitude control commands that are configured to displace servos and linkages on the aircraft.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the trajectory based on in-flight configurations or constraints of the aircraft.

9. A system for controlling flight of an autonomous tail-sitter aircraft through a flight transition, comprising:
a propeller for rotor-borne flight of the aircraft;
a wing for wing-borne flight of the aircraft
a processor; and
memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
receive one or more signals indicative of a flight plan comprising a plurality of waypoints along a flight transition;
determine information a trajectory between the plurality of waypoints using a first module;
determine vehicle attitude commands for the trajectory at a second module;
determine flight control command signals for the vehicle attitude commands at a third module;
implement the flight control command signals at the aircraft to control the flight of the aircraft through the flight transition from the rotor-borne flight state in which a propeller of the aircraft provides lift to the aircraft in a vertical orientation of the aircraft to the wing-borne flight state which the propeller provides a forward thrust to the aircraft in a horizontal orientation of the aircraft; and
determine a difference between the vehicle attitude commands and a response of the aircraft; and
provide the difference as input to the second module and as input to the third module to reduce the difference to traverse the trajectory.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the difference between the vehicle attitude commands and the response of the aircraft by determining an error between sensed vehicle states and the vehicle attitude commands.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to receive sensor information related to a deviation of the aircraft from the trajectory and determine a transition trajectory in response to the receiving of the sensor information related to a deviation.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine at least one of an aircraft velocity, aircraft attitude, and aircraft position.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to receive signals indicative of data from real-time terrain and obstacle sensors.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the vehicle attitude commands based on the trajectory and location of the aircraft.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine desired vehicle attitude control commands that are configured to displace servos and linkages on the aircraft.

Assignees

• Sikorsky Aircraft Corp

Inventors

• Cherepinsky Igor
• Sane Harshad S

Classifications

• B64U2201/10

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

• G05D1/0808 Primary

  specially adapted for aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/0078

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05D1/101

  specially adapted for aircraft · CPC title

• B64C2201/141

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic