Directional lighting fitted to an aircraft, and an associated lighting method

a technology for directional lighting and aircraft, applied in the field of systems, can solve the problems of not making it possible for lighting, and not serving to control the orientation of a light sour

Active Publication Date: 2020-08-06
EUROCOPTER
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Enables the aircraft to automatically and accurately direct its lighting towards movable targets on the ground, such as offshore platforms or ships, by using image processing and servocontrol to adjust the light source's orientation in real-time, overcoming the limitations of previous systems.

Problems solved by technology

Consequently, such a device does not make it possible for the lighting to track automatically a pad site that is movable in the reference frame associated with the ground.
Consequently, and as above, such a device does not make it possible for the lighting to track automatically a pad site that is movable in the reference frame associated with the ground.
Nevertheless, although such a device enables a rotorcraft to be piloted automatically towards a landing zone with a predetermined flight path, it does not serve to control the orientation of a light source pointed towards a landing zone, and consequently to track that landing zone automatically.

Method used

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  • Directional lighting fitted to an aircraft, and an associated lighting method
  • Directional lighting fitted to an aircraft, and an associated lighting method

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Embodiment Construction

[0094]Elements that are present in more than one of the figures are given the same references in each of them.

[0095]As mentioned above, the invention relates to a directional lighting system for fitting to an aircraft.

[0096]As shown in FIG. 1, such a directional lighting system 1 may be mounted on an aircraft and serve to light a pointing target, in particular such as a landing zone.

[0097]Thus, the directional lighting system 1 has at least one light source 3 mounted on a motor-driven support 4. Also, such a motor-driven support 4 presents at least one degree of freedom to move in rotation relative to a fuselage 5 of the aircraft 2, and preferably two degrees of freedom to move in rotation relative to the fuselage 5.

[0098]The directional lighting system 1 also has a control device to 6 for controlling movements of the motor-driven support 4 to occupy at least one angular orientation, and preferably to occupy two angular orientations α, β, α′, β′. This, or these, angular orientation(...

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Abstract

A directional lighting system fitted to an aircraft and comprising firstly a light source mounted on a motor-driven support and secondly a control device serving to control the motor-driven support. According to the invention, such a directional lighting system comprises a selector member for selecting a pointing target that is to be pointed to, a camera for acquiring a plurality of images of the surroundings outside the aircraft, image processor means for identifying the selected pointing target, a calculation unit configured to calculate the current coordinates of the pointing target, and a servocontrol member of the control device for servocontrolling the position of the motor-driven support to occupy an angular orientation as determined by the calculation unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to French patent application No. FR 1900910 filed on Jan. 31, 2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION(1) Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a system and a method for providing directional lighting from an aircraft. In particular, such an aircraft may consist in an airplane, a rotorcraft, or any type of aircraft that is preferably capable of taking off and / or landing vertically.[0003]Also, such aircraft may advantageously carry on board one or more pilots and / or passengers and / or goods.[0004]More particularly, the invention relates to the field of lighting systems comprising a light source mounted on a motor-driven support presenting at least one degree of freedom to move in rotation relative to a fuselage of the aircraft, and at least one control device enabling the motor-driven support to be controlled to occup...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & AuthorityApplications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): B64D47/04B64D47/08F21V21/15
CPCB64D47/04B64D47/08F21V21/15B64D43/00B64D2203/00B64D45/08
InventorSALESSE-LAVERGNE, MARC
OwnerEUROCOPTER