Lead-Follower Aircraft Navigation for Sensorless DVE Flight
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Solution Overview
Problem
Helicopter operations in degraded visual environments (DVE) are hindered by the high cost and weight of sensors needed to navigate through such conditions, making it expensive to equip multiple aircraft with these sensors.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a lead aircraft equipped with sensors to map the environment and transfer object locations to a follower aircraft via global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements, allowing the follower aircraft to adjust its trajectory safely without the need for onboard sensors, using a combination of inertially-aided GPS time relative navigation (TRN) and real-time kinematics (RTK) differential GPS (DGPS) solutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If each helicopter in a group is equipped with sensors to navigate through degraded visual environments, then navigation capability in DVE is improved, but cost and operational expense increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The lead aircraft creates a digital copy of the environment by mapping objects and their locations using its onboard sensors. This environmental map is then transferred to follower aircraft, allowing them to navigate without having their own expensive DVE sensors. The follower aircraft receives and uses this copied environmental information to maintain navigation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
A communication system acts as an intermediary between the lead aircraft and follower aircraft. The lead aircraft's sensor data and environmental maps are transmitted through this intermediary communication channel to the followers, enabling them to access navigation information without direct sensor installation.
2Measurement precision
If sensors are installed on each helicopter for DVE navigation, then obstacle detection accuracy is improved, but weight of each aircraft increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of each aircraft carrying its own sensors, the lead aircraft creates an environmental map copying the spatial distribution of objects. This map is transferred to follower aircraft, which then have access to obstacle location information without the physical weight of sensors.
3Reliability
If expensive sensors are equipped on multiple aircraft, then navigation reliability in DVE is improved, but device complexity and overall system cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the sensing function into two segments: the lead aircraft performs environmental mapping using its sensors, while follower aircraft receive and process the transmitted environmental data. This segmentation allows only one aircraft to carry the expensive sensor suite while maintaining navigation capability across the entire group.
Solution Approach 2:
The lead aircraft's environmental map serves multiple follower aircraft simultaneously. A single sensor system on the lead aircraft provides navigation information to the entire fleet, making the sensing capability universal across all aircraft without requiring duplicate sensor installations.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system may include a follower aircraft including a processor configured to: determine a follower aircraft location at a time t0; receive a real-time kinematics (RTK) update from a lead aircraft, the RTK update including information associated with: a lead aircraft location at the time t0, the lead aircraft location at a time t1 relative to the lead aircraft location at the time t0, and an object location at the time t1 relative to the lead aircraft location at the time t1; perform RTK processing to determine the follower aircraft location at the time t0 relative to the lead aircraft location at a time t0; determine the follower aircraft location at a time t2 relative to the follower aircraft location at the time t0 by utilizing time relative navigation (TRN); and determine the object location at time t2 relative to the follower aircraft location at the time t2.