Depression Angle Tracking with Onboard Flight Director Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for assessing the performance of sensing aircraft systems, particularly in tracking target depression angles, face challenges such as limited precision, repeatability, and the inability to accommodate real-time disturbances and environmental effects, leading to sub-optimal data quality and increased costs during airborne testing.
Innovation Solution
The Depression Angle Reference Tracking (DART) system utilizes onboard GPS and INS data to calculate the aircraft's location relative to a reference location, providing pilots with tracking error cues and flight director guidance to achieve precise control of depression angles, incorporating Error Cue, Blended Flight Director, and Advanced Flight Director modes for improved tracking performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If ground controller-aided maneuvering is used to track target depression angle, then the system can provide maneuvering corrections, but the tracking precision and repeatability are limited due to latency and lack of onboard feedback
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an onboard feedback system that provides real-time depression angle tracking error information to the pilot through display units. The system calculates tracking errors using onboard GPS and INS data, then presents this information via error cues and flight director guidance, eliminating the time delay inherent in ground controller-based systems and enabling immediate pilot response to tracking deviations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an onboard computer system as an intermediary that automatically calculates depression angle tracking errors and generates guidance commands. This intermediary processes position and attitude data from GPS and INS, computes the difference between actual and desired depression angles, and translates these errors into intuitive pilot guidance cues, removing the need for ground controller interpretation and radio communication delays.
2Productivity
If pre-planned trajectories are used to avoid constraints, then the flight profile can be optimized, but the system cannot accommodate real-time disturbances and environmental effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static pre-planned trajectory approach into a dynamic adaptive system. The onboard computer continuously calculates the desired depression angle based on real-time aircraft position and attitude, allowing the flight profile to automatically adjust to environmental disturbances such as winds aloft. This dynamic recalculation ensures the aircraft maintains accurate depression angle tracking despite real-time changes in flight conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables the aircraft to self-correct tracking errors without ground controller intervention. The onboard computer autonomously monitors actual depression angle, compares it to the desired value, calculates tracking errors, and generates corrective guidance commands that are immediately presented to the pilot through flight director cues, allowing real-time adaptation to disturbances while maintaining data collection efficiency.
3Ease of operation
If discrete attitude correction commands are provided to the pilot, then maneuvering guidance can be given, but precise tracking of target depression angle cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides continuous feedback to the pilot through flight director guidance cues that indicate the magnitude and direction of depression angle tracking errors. Rather than discrete correction commands, the flight director presents continuous incremental guidance that guides the pilot smoothly to the desired attitude, enabling precise tracking while maintaining ease of operation through intuitive visual cues.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from discrete attitude correction commands to continuous flight director guidance parameters. The system calculates continuous depression angle error values and translates them into continuous flight director cue parameters that dynamically adjust based on the current tracking error, providing the pilot with precise, real-time guidance for achieving and maintaining the desired depression angle.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for tracking a target depression angle relative to a reference location. In accordance with some embodiments, the system comprises a set of algorithms and pilot displays that use data from an onboard navigation system to calculate an asset's location relative to a reference location, allowing for precise control of relative geometry for the purposes of system measurement and performance assessment. The system provides a pilot with tracking error and steering cues along a flight profile, allowing for closed-loop tracking of target depression angle (body axis elevation) while sweeping look angle (body axis azimuth) relative to a static or dynamic reference location.