Adaptive Rotary-Wing Navigation Lights for True Flight Direction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Rotary wing air vehicles face challenges in accurately indicating the true direction of flight using conventional navigation lights due to their high motional freedom, leading to confusion and potential weight increase from additional light systems.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive navigation light system with circular light arrays and a processing system that determines and energizes individual light sources based on track error data to accurately indicate flight direction without increasing vehicle weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If multiple sets of navigation lights are installed to accurately indicate flight direction, then the accuracy of flight direction indication is improved, but the vehicle weight and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the navigation light system adaptable to changing flight conditions. A single set of navigation lights is used, but its configuration dynamically changes based on the vehicle's attitude and flight direction through electronic control, eliminating the need for multiple physical light sets while maintaining accurate direction indication
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the navigation light system by using electronic control to adjust light emission characteristics. The control system modifies which lights are activated and their emission patterns based on real-time flight data, allowing a single light set to perform multiple functions that would otherwise require separate physical lights
2Measurement precision
If multiple sets of navigation lights are installed to accurately indicate flight direction, then the accuracy of flight direction indication is improved, but the cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a single navigation light set that can serve multiple functions through electronic control. The same physical lights are used to indicate different flight directions and attitudes by controlling which lights emit and their emission patterns, eliminating the need for multiple specialized light sets and reducing overall system cost
3Device complexity
If fixed navigation lights are used on rotary wing vehicles, then the system simplicity is maintained, but the accuracy of flight direction indication deteriorates due to high motional freedom
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from static fixed lights to a dynamic controllable system. While maintaining physical simplicity with a single light set, the system dynamically adjusts light emission based on real-time flight data, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and accuracy by making the light behavior adaptive rather than fixed
Data Source
AI summary
An adaptive navigation light system is provided for a rotary wing air vehicle having at least a main body and a plurality of arms, where the main body includes a front end and a tail end disposed opposite the front end, and each arm of the plurality of arms extends from the main body. The adaptive navigation light system includes a plurality of circular light arrays and a processing system. Each circular light array is operable to emit light of a plurality of different colors, and each circular light array includes a plurality of individual light sources. The processing system is configured to track error data to determine which one of the different colors each circular light array should emit, determine which of the individual light sources in each in each circular light array should be energized, and energize the individual light sources that are determined should be energized.