Airborne Target Recovery with Guided Capture and Cable Load Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge of airborne recovery of a sub-aircraft poses a significant obstacle in establishing an unmanned mother-child aircraft system, as demonstrated by historical failures in integrating a sub-aircraft with a mother aircraft, particularly in achieving timely and reliable capture and recovery.
Innovation Solution
An airborne target recovery system is deployed on a carrier, featuring a recovery device with a cable and cable drive, a guide arm with a capture device, a state observation device, and a controller that controls the guide arm to guide the capture device to a desired state for timely capture and recovery, ensuring the capture device detaches from the guide arm after capturing the target, allowing the recovery device to handle the load.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the guide arm directly bears the target load during capture and recovery, then the capture device can be securely held, but the guide arm becomes too heavy and complex to enable high-precision positioning and rapid response
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the load-bearing function from the guide arm by introducing a separate cable drive device. The guide arm is reduced to only guiding the capture device, while the cable drive device independently handles the target load. This separation allows the guide arm to be lightweight and simple, improving positioning precision and response speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The recovery system is segmented into distinct functional modules: the guide arm for positioning, the cable drive device for load-bearing, and the capture device for engagement. This modular segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, with the guide arm being lightweight for high-precision control and the cable drive device being robust for handling heavy targets.
2Speed
If the guide arm is made lightweight for high-precision positioning, then response speed improves, but it cannot bear the heavy target load during recovery
Solution Approach 1:
The load-bearing function is extracted from the guide arm and assigned to the cable drive device. The guide arm only performs positioning and guiding functions, allowing it to be lightweight with fast response speed. The cable drive device independently provides the necessary load-bearing capacity through its cable and winch mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable acts as an intermediary between the target and the drive system. The guide arm positions the capture device, while the cable transmits the target load to the cable drive device. This intermediary mechanism allows the guide arm to remain lightweight while the system as a whole handles heavy loads effectively.
3Device complexity
If a single recovery device handles both positioning and load-bearing, then the system structure is simplified, but it cannot achieve both high-precision capture and reliable heavy-load recovery
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into specialized components: the guide arm for high-precision positioning, the cable drive device for reliable load-bearing, and the capture device for secure engagement. This functional segmentation ensures each component excels at its specific task, achieving both precision and reliability while maintaining reasonable overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable drive device serves multiple functions: it provides load-bearing capacity during recovery, acts as a braking mechanism during capture, and enables controlled retrieval of the target. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional specialized components, balancing system complexity with performance requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
An airborne target recovery system deployed on a carrier, including at least one recovery device, at least one guide arm, a state observation device, and a controller. The controller, based on data fed back by the state observation device, controls the guide arm to guide a capture device to a desired state for timely capturing a target, as well as controls the recovery device to complete the recovery of a target. The recovery device, the guide arm, and the state observation device are each electrically connected to the controller.