UAV Tether Marker Guidance for Covert Recovery
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current UAV recovery systems require expensive and weight-adding differential GPS systems and signal transmissions, which can reveal the UAV's presence, limiting their use in covert operations and necessitating complex guidance systems.
Innovation Solution
A UAV recovery system using a tether line with detectable markers at different positions, allowing the aircraft to calculate its position relative to the tether line and guide itself for contact without external guidance signals, enabling covert operations and reducing system complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If differential GPS systems and signal transmissions are used for UAV recovery guidance, then guidance accuracy is improved, but system cost and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the guidance function from complex external GPS systems and signal transmission infrastructure, replacing it with a simplified marker-based visual guidance system. The markers are directly attached to the recovery structure, eliminating the need for separate GPS receivers and external guidance signals, thus reducing system complexity while maintaining guidance accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The recovery system provides its own guidance function through markers that are self-contained on the recovery structure. The UAV's onboard camera detects these markers and calculates position and orientation autonomously without requiring external guidance signals or complex ground-based transmitters, making the system self-sufficient and reducing overall complexity.
2Measurement precision
If differential GPS systems and signal transmissions are used for UAV recovery guidance, then guidance accuracy is improved, but operational secrecy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the reliance on external signal transmission systems that could reveal UAV presence. By using passive visual markers that the UAV detects with its own sensors, the system eliminates the need for ground-based transmitters that could be detected, thereby maintaining guidance accuracy while improving operational secrecy.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the ground station actively transmitting guidance signals to the UAV (which could be detected), the system inverts the approach by placing passive markers on the ground that the UAV actively detects using its onboard sensors. This reversal maintains guidance functionality while preventing the UAV's presence from being revealed through transmission signals.
3Measurement precision
If complex guidance systems are used for UAV recovery, then recovery accuracy is improved, but system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses inexpensive markers made from simple materials (such as colored tape or printed patterns) attached to the recovery structure. These markers are far cheaper than GPS receivers, transmitters, and associated infrastructure, while still providing sufficient guidance accuracy for UAV recovery operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical and electronic guidance systems (GPS receivers, signal transmitters, ground-based radar) with a simple optical system using visual markers. The UAV's onboard camera and image processing algorithms substitute for expensive hardware, achieving comparable or sufficient accuracy at a fraction of the cost.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate and covert UAV recovery without external guidance signals, reducing system complexity and cost, and allowing operation in low visibility conditions.
Implementation Method 1
markers to be detected by the aircraft
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus to guide an unmanned aerial vehicle for recovery thereof are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus to recover an aircraft or a payload thereof includes a tether line, and markers supported by the tether line at different positions of the tether line, the markers to be detected by the aircraft, the aircraft to be guided to engage the tether line by determining positions of the markers and calculating a position of at least a portion of the tether line based on the determined position of the markers.