Unmanned Aircraft Lost-Link Landing Site Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unmanned aircraft systems face challenges in managing communication link degradation during flight, leading to potential loss of control and safe landing issues.
Innovation Solution
The aircraft is equipped with a communication system to detect lost communication scenarios and a flight control system that routes the aircraft back to a last known location, attempts to re-establish the communication link, and selects a landing site from contingency data, enabling safe landing at a suitable location.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the aircraft attempts to re-establish communication by returning to the last known location, then communication reliability may be improved, but flight time and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-identifies and stores multiple potential landing sites in the contingency data structure before communication failure occurs. This preliminary preparation allows the flight control system to quickly select and navigate to an appropriate landing site without delay, resolving the contradiction by having recovery options ready in advance rather than searching for them after communication is lost.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication system dynamically assesses the current communication link quality and determines whether to attempt re-establishment at the last known location or proceed directly to a contingency landing site. This dynamic decision-making process optimizes the balance between recovering communication and minimizing flight time loss based on real-time conditions.
2Reliability
If the aircraft returns to the last known location to re-establish communication, then communication link stability improves, but the risk of further degradation and inability to reach destination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-positions the aircraft at identified contingency landing sites along the flight path, which serve as buffer locations with guaranteed communication coverage. These cushioning positions ensure that if communication fails completely, the aircraft has pre-prepared safe locations to land rather than being forced to return to the last known location where communication may not be recoverable.
Solution Approach 2:
The contingency landing sites act as intermediary positions between the origin and destination airports. Rather than directly attempting to recover communication at the last known location or flying all the way to the destination, the aircraft can land at these intermediate sites which have verified communication capability, thus mediating the communication recovery process.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple contingency landing sites are pre-identified, then landing options and safety improve, but system complexity and data storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The contingency data structure is segmented into distinct fields for different types of information: identification data, location coordinates, communication frequency data, and suitability criteria. This segmentation organizes the complex data into manageable, standardized components that can be easily processed and queried by the flight control system without overwhelming complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The contingency landing site data structure is designed to be universal and applicable to different aircraft types and communication systems. The standardized format allows the same data structure to serve multiple functions: navigation guidance, communication frequency reference, and landing procedure planning, thereby reducing overall system complexity through multi-functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
An aircraft includes a flight plan and contingency data including a plurality of contingency landing sites. An aircraft communication system communicates with a ground control station via a communication link and detects a lost communication scenario in response to degradation in the communication link. An aircraft flight control system controls the aircraft en route according to the flight plan. In response to detecting the lost communication scenario, the flight control system routes the aircraft back to a last known location in which the communication link was not degraded. In response to failure to re-establish the communication link, the flight control system selects a landing site based on a current aircraft location relative to a plurality of potential landing sites including an origin airport, a destination airport, and a first continency landing site. The flight control system controls the aircraft to approach and land at the selected landing site.