VTOL Landing Marker Layout for Accurate Visual Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic landing systems for vertical take-off and landing aircraft face challenges in accurately guiding the aircraft to a target landing point, particularly when the landing point is on a moving object like a marine vessel, due to disturbances such as rocking or windblast, and when the altitude is far from the landing target, causing the landing target to be small and difficult to recognize.
Innovation Solution
An automatic landing system for vertical take-off and landing aircraft that uses a marker group with multiple markers of varying sizes and center positions, including a small and large marker group, to determine the relative position between the aircraft and the landing point through image processing, enabling accurate guidance by controlling the aircraft's position to zero relative to the landing point.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a single fixed-size marker is used at the target landing point, then the system structure is simple, but the marker becomes difficult to recognize when the aircraft is at high altitude or when disturbances occur
Solution Approach 1:
The marker at the target landing point is segmented into multiple markers of different sizes (large markers and small markers) arranged in a marker group. This segmentation allows the system to select appropriate markers based on altitude and disturbance conditions, improving recognition accuracy without requiring a single complex marker design
Solution Approach 2:
Different markers within the group have different local qualities (sizes) to suit different operating conditions. Large markers are positioned for distant/high-altitude recognition, while small markers provide precision for close/low-altitude alignment. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between visibility at various altitudes and system simplicity
2Adaptability or versatility
If the target landing point is on a moving object like a marine vessel, then the system can achieve versatile landing locations, but disturbances like rocking and windblast cause the marker to deviate from the imaging range
Solution Approach 1:
The marker group is segmented into multiple markers distributed across different positions and sizes. When disturbances occur, some markers may move out of the imaging range while others remain visible, ensuring continuous detection capability and maintaining reliability despite the moving platform
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses more markers than strictly necessary (excessive action), creating redundancy in the marker group. This allows the system to tolerate partial marker loss due to disturbances while maintaining reliable detection, thus preserving reliability while supporting versatile landing locations
3Speed
If the aircraft operates at relatively high altitude from the target landing point, then the approach phase is extended, but the marker appears small and cannot be recognized in image processing
Solution Approach 1:
The marker group contains markers with different local qualities (sizes) to address different altitude conditions. Large markers are optimized for high-altitude recognition where the marker must appear larger to be detected, while small markers are used when the aircraft is closer. This resolves the contradiction between extended approach speed and marker recognition accuracy at various altitudes
Data Source
AI summary
An automatic landing system for a vertical take-off and landing aircraft includes: a camera mounted on a vertical take-off and landing aircraft; a relative-position acquisition unit configured to perform image processing on an image captured by the camera, the image including a marker group provided at a target landing point, to acquire a relative position between the vertical take-off and landing aircraft and the target landing point; and a control unit configured to control the vertical take-off and landing aircraft such that the relative position becomes zero, in which the marker group includes a plurality of markers that are arranged side by side and that have different center positions from each other, the markers are larger as arranged farther away from the target landing point, and the relative-position acquisition unit acquires the relative position based on a distance between the marker recognized in the image and the target landing point.