199 results about "Automatic landing" patented technology

A system for facilitating automated landing and takeoff of an autonomous or pilot controlled hovering air vehicle with a cooperative underbody at a stationary or mobile landing place and an automated storage system used in conjunction with the landing and takeoff mechanism that stores and services a plurality of UAVs is described. The system is primarily characterized in that the landing mechanism is settable with 6 axes in roll, pitch, yaw, and x, y and z and becomes aligned with and intercepts the air vehicle in flight and decelerates the vehicle with respect to vehicle's inertial limits. The air vehicle and capture mechanism are provided with a transmitter and receiver to coordinate vehicle priority and distance and angles between landing mechanism and air vehicle. The landing and takeoff system has means of tracking the position and orientation of the UAV in real time. The landing mechanism will be substantially aligned to the base of the air vehicle. With small UAVs, their lifting capacity is limited. Reducing sensing and computation requirements by having the landing plate perform the precision adjustments for the landing operation allows for increased flight time and / or payload capacity.

An embodiment of the invention provides an automatic landing method and device and an air vehicle. The automatic landing method comprises the steps of determining the acquired ground image to be a target image when an automatic landing event of the air vehicle is detected; analyzing the determined target image, when the fact that no landing graphic object is included in the target image is determined after analysis, controlling the air vehicle to move in the direction of a signal source of an indication signal according to strength of the received indication signal, acquiring a new ground image after movement of the air vehicle, and after the new ground image is determined to be the target image, executing the step repeatedly until the fact that the target image includes the landing graphic object is determined after analysis; after the fact that the target image includes the landing graphic object is determined after analysis, executing landing control over the air vehicle according to the landing graphic object determined by analysis. By means of the automatic landing method and device, the air vehicle can be guided to land automatically, conveniently, quickly and accurately under the conditions of weak GPS signals, and demands on automatic and intelligent control over the air vehicle of an air vehicle user are met well.

The present invention relates to a reduced scale industrial helicopter, with an integrated automatic flight control system, that includes core autopilot functions, GPS management, and full-function navigation systems. The autopilot technology includes rapid launch capability, real-time in-flight switching between one or more of a) remote control, b) autopilot-directed, c) ground station controlled, and d) home modes, and is upgradeable. The helicopter is used for high or low altitude surveillance, and can handle various payloads, including photographic missions. The helicopter may include onboard batteries and / or a unique battery unit disposed beneath the helicopter, and includes autonomous features such as automatic takeoff, automatic landing, safety return to home base, and predetermined mission plans.

Disclosed herein are a system for automatically landing an aircraft using image signals and a method of controlling the system. The system includes an altimeter installed on the aircraft; a landing mark placed at a landing location on a landing runway; a camera installed on the aircraft, oriented toward the front of the aircraft, and configured to detect the shape of the landing mark in image information form; and a FCC configured to calculate the angle between the aircraft and the ground, the ground range and the slant range between the aircraft and the landing location using the altitude information measured by the altimeter, the image information of the landing mark captured by the camera, angle information composed of the pitch, roll and yaw angles of the aircraft, and the angle of entry into the landing runway, and configured to control the automatic landing of the aircraft.

A system for facilitating automated landing and takeoff of an autonomous or pilot controlled hovering air vehicle with a cooperative underbody at a stationary or mobile landing place and an automated storage system used in conjunction with the landing and takeoff mechanism that stores and services a plurality of UAVs is described. The system is primarily characterized in that the landing mechanism is settable with 6 axes in roll, pitch, yaw, and x, y and z and becomes aligned with and intercepts the air vehicle in flight and decelerates the vehicle with respect to vehicle's inertial limits. The air vehicle and capture mechanism are provided with a transmitter and receiver to coordinate vehicle priority and distance and angles between landing mechanism and air vehicle. The landing and takeoff system has means of tracking the position and orientation of the UAV in real time. The landing mechanism will be substantially aligned to the base of the air vehicle. With small UAVs, their lifting capacity is limited. Reducing sensing and computation requirements by having the landing plate perform the precision adjustments for the landing operation allows for increased flight time and / or payload capacity.

The invention relates to an automatic aircraft landing guidance system having an electromagnetic detecting and locating device, positioned on the ground and a first multifunction transmitting / receiving radiofrequency beacon, on board each guided aircraft and transmitting in particular a continuous wave. The detecting and locating device uses the continuous wave transmitted by the beacon to perform a passive locating intended to improve the accuracy of the measurement of the angular position of the aircraft. It also comprises means for generating and periodically transmitting to the aircraft, via the beacon, information enabling said aircraft to rejoin an optimum landing path from its position. The invention applies more particularly to the guidance of autonomous and automatic aircraft such as drones in the approach and landing phase.

The invention relates to a method for the on-line self-calibration of external parameters of cameras of a bionic landing system of an unmanned gyroplane. The method can solve the problem of a blind zone of stereoscopic vision in a descending process of a gyroplane and improve the landing precision of the unmanned gyroplane. The actual operating steps comprise: (1) calibration of internal parameters; (2) calibration of external parameters; and (3) on-line self-calibration of the external parameters. The method can realize the on-line self-calibration of the external parameters of double cameras carried in the unmanned gyroplane, obtain optical axis included angle information and height information of the cameras in real time, and effectively solve the problem of the blind zone of binocular stereoscopic vision, so that the automatic landing of the unmanned gyroplane is ensured, and the security of the system is improved.

The invention relates to an unmanned plane automatic landing system. The system comprises an aerial photography camera, a landmark positioner, unmanned plane driving equipment and a main controller, wherein the aerial photography camera shoots suspected landmark region under an unmanned plane, so as to obtain a suspected landmark image; the landmark positioner performs image processing on the suspected landmark image, so as to obtain the relative height and the relative positioning distance from the unmanned plane to a landmark when the fact that the landmark exists in the suspected landmark image is determined; the main controller is respectively connected with the landmark positioner and the unmanned plane driving equipment, and controls the unmanned plane driving equipment to drive the unmanned plane to be landed on the landmark according to the relative height and the relative positioning distance. The unmanned plane automatic landing system can accomplish automatic and accurate landing of the unmanned plane in various different landforms, and improves the intelligence level of the unmanned plane.

A method and system for preventing the control of an aircraft from the cockpit. In an exemplary embodiment, the system could be triggered externally. For example, an air traffic control (ATC) station could determine that the aircraft has deviated from its planned flight path. If personnel at the ATC station decide that the deviation is not attributable to the actions of the authorized flight crew, the personnel can transmit a signal to the aircraft that disables all normal cockpit control of the aircraft. Once normal flight controls are disabled, the aircraft may execute a preprogrammed emergency flight plan via its autopilot system, with or without the use of a flight management system (FMS). The emergency flight plan could cause the aircraft to fly to a sparsely populated area and enter a holding pattern, or it could cause the aircraft to land in a sparsely populated area or at an airport using an autoland system.

The invention provides an unmanned plane automatic landing guiding method based on an optical flow. In the process of landing, a marker is determined by processing the real-time image shot by the camera of an optical flow module, the position and attitude of the marker relative to an unmanned plane are estimated, the relative position and attitude information are sent to a flight controller to control the unmanned plane to gradually approach the landing target, and the full-autonomous landing of the unmanned plane can be ultimately achieved. Because the unmanned plane realizes the self-positioning in the autonomous flight and landing process by a downward viewing optical flow sensor, the visual positioning of itself can be completed without a GPS. And in the case of GPS failure, the auxiliary positioning can be carried out by means of the optical flow module, so that the unmanned plane can accurately find the landing site, and the reliability of the unmanned plane landing can be improved. The method is reasonable in design, can achieve accurate landing under different conditions, and is wide in applicability.

A system and method are disclosed for automatic landing of an aircraft on a landing runway, including an on-board video camera intended to take images of the ground, image processor to extract from these images visual features of the landing runway, guidance system determining guidance commands of the aircraft to bring it into a nominal approach plane and to align it with the axis of the landing runway, from the respective positions of the visual features of the landing runway, in at least one of the images, where the guidance commands are supplied to a flight control computer.