Aircraft Camera Navigation for GPS-Denied Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft face challenges in determining their location accurately, especially when GPS systems become unavailable, and in adjusting flight control gains for varying payloads, which affects precision landing and stability.
Innovation Solution
A navigation system that includes cameras mounted on the aircraft to capture images of the environment and a processing component to determine the aircraft's location, combined with a flight control system that adapts control gains based on payload weight, center of gravity, and inertia through a series of maneuvers and sensor data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS positioning system is used to determine aircraft location, then location information can be obtained, but the system becomes vulnerable to signal loss and unavailability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces visual landmarks in the environment as intermediary objects for location determination. When GPS signals are unavailable, the system captures images of these landmarks using onboard cameras and matches them against a database of known landmark positions to determine the aircraft's location, thus providing a reliable backup positioning method that does not depend on satellite signals
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions between different positioning parameters and methods based on availability. It switches from GPS-based coordinate parameters to visual landmark-based position parameters, changing the fundamental parameter set used for location determination when GPS becomes unavailable, ensuring continuous positioning capability
2Manufacturing precision
If flight control gains are adjusted for varying payloads, then precision landing and stability improve, but the control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of payload characteristics (weight, center of gravity, inertia) before flight operations begin. By determining these parameters in advance and pre-calculating appropriate control gains, the system avoids the need for complex real-time adjustments during flight, reducing control system complexity while maintaining precision landing capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where sensor data from maneuvers is used to identify payload properties, which then inform control gain adjustments. This closed-loop approach allows the control system to adapt to varying payloads systematically, improving precision landing while managing complexity through structured feedback processing
Data Source
AI summary
One embodiment is a navigation system for an aircraft including a positioning system to generate information related to a position of the aircraft, a group of cameras mounted to a body of the aircraft, each camera of the group of cameras to simultaneously capture images of a portion of an environment that surrounds the aircraft, and a processing component coupled to the positioning system and the group of cameras, the processing component to determine a current position of the aircraft based on the information related to the position of the aircraft and the images.