Autopilot Recovery Trajectory Segmentation for Full-Envelope Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional aircraft flight envelope protection systems are inefficient in handling a wide range of recovery scenarios and collision avoidance, as they typically evaluate individual aspects separately and cannot compute all possible options in real-world flying conditions, leading to potential damage or loss of control.
Innovation Solution
A modular, piecewise aircraft flight envelope protection system that precomputes projected recovery trajectories using a processor to concatenate predefined recovery mode segments, such as coasting, nose high, nose low, throttle only, and terrain avoidance, to generate a unified and efficient recovery strategy across various hazards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional aircraft utilize many disparate protection or safety systems to evaluate individual aspects, then flight envelope protection is provided, but the system complexity increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple disparate protection systems into a unified flight envelope protection system that uses a single processor to evaluate all flight parameters (pitch angle, roll angle, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed) simultaneously. This integration maintains comprehensive protection while reducing system complexity by eliminating redundant evaluation mechanisms across separate systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The processor is designed to perform multiple functions: it continuously monitors flight parameters, evaluates threat conditions, generates recovery trajectories, and controls flight control surfaces. This multi-functional approach replaces multiple specialized systems with a single universal protection system that handles all aspects of flight envelope protection.
2Reliability
If the system precomputes all possible recovery options, then complete recovery coverage is achieved, but computational time and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system precomputes recovery trajectories and stores them in a database during ground operations, before flight is needed. This preliminary computation allows the onboard processor to quickly retrieve and select appropriate recovery trajectories during flight without performing complex real-time calculations, thus achieving complete recovery coverage with minimal computational delay.
Solution Approach 2:
Recovery trajectories are segmented into discrete, precomputed options stored in a database. Each trajectory represents a specific recovery scenario (e.g., nose-high recovery, nose-low recovery, inverted recovery). The system segments the continuous problem space into discrete, manageable trajectory options that can be quickly evaluated and selected based on current flight conditions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system handles a wide range of recovery scenarios, then adaptability improves, but the difficulty of computing all options increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs comprehensive computation of recovery trajectories during ground operations, before flight. All possible recovery scenarios are precomputed and stored in a database, allowing the onboard system to simply retrieve and select appropriate trajectories during flight without performing complex real-time computations for each scenario.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments recovery scenarios into distinct, precomputed trajectory types (nose-high, nose-low, inverted, etc.). Each segment represents a specific recovery mode that has been independently computed and stored. This segmentation allows the system to handle a wide range of scenarios by selecting from precomputed segments rather than computing all options in real-time.
Data Source
AI summary
A projected recovery trajectory for an aircraft autopilot system is precomputed by providing a stored set of predefined recovery mode segments, including: a mode 1 segment that models the aircraft coasting; a mode 2 segment that models the aircraft executing a nose high recovery; a mode 3 segment that models the aircraft executing a nose low recovery; a mode 4 segment that models the aircraft executing a throttle only recovery; and a mode 5 segment that models the aircraft executing a terrain avoidance recovery. A processor generates at least one projected recovery trajectory based on a current state of the aircraft, where the processor selectively concatenates selected ones of the predefined recovery mode segments into a sequence and uses that sequence to generate the projected trajectory.