Aircraft Camera Navigation for GPS-Denied VTOL Landing
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Solution Overview
Problem
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 landings 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
1Reliability
If GPS positioning system is used to determine aircraft location, then location information can be obtained, but the system becomes unavailable when over-the-air communication is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces visual markers as an intermediary medium between the aircraft and the positioning system. Instead of relying directly on GPS satellites, the system uses ground-based visual markers that the aircraft's camera can detect. This intermediary allows location determination to continue even when direct satellite communication is unavailable, as the markers provide visual reference points that can be processed locally by the aircraft's navigation system.
2Measurement precision
If flight control gains are adjusted for varying payloads, then precision landing and stability improve, but the control system becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing optimal control gain values for different payload conditions. Before flight, the system determines the expected payload weight and center of gravity, then selects appropriate control gains from pre-computed tables. This eliminates the need for complex real-time calculations during flight, reducing onboard computational complexity while maintaining high landing precision through optimized control parameters.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where sensor data from accelerometers and other instruments continuously monitor the aircraft's actual performance during flight. This feedback is compared against expected values, and control gains are dynamically adjusted to compensate for deviations caused by varying payloads. The feedback loop ensures precise control adaptation without requiring the entire control system to be overly complex, as only incremental adjustments are needed based on actual measurements.
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.