System and method for situational awareness, vehicle control, and/or contingency planning
AssigneeSkyryse, Inc.
InventorsMark Groden, Mitch Adler, Jonathan Reeves, Nur Harell, Christopher Ward
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method, preferably including: sampling inputs, determining aircraft conditions, and/or acting based on the aircraft conditions. A method, preferably including: sampling inputs, determining input reliability, determining guidance, and/or controlling aircraft operation. A method, preferably including: operating the vehicle, planning for contingencies, detecting undesired flight conditions, and/or reacting to undesired flight conditions. A system, preferably an aircraft such as a rotorcraft, configured implement the method.
Claims18
A method of aircraft operation, comprising:
- flying an aircraft in a normal flight mode, comprising:
- at a first sensor of the aircraft, sampling a first set of flight data, wherein the first set of flight data is indicative of an undesired aircraft trajectory;
- and
- at a processor of the aircraft, autonomously controlling the aircraft to fly based on the first set of flight data;
- while flying the aircraft in the normal flight mode, sampling a dataset at a second sensor of the aircraft, the dataset indicative of an undesired condition associated with a flight control element of the aircraft, wherein the flight control element is a flight control surface, wherein the second sensor is a flight control surface position sensor associated with the flight control surface;
- determining that the first set of flight data is consistent with the undesired condition, wherein the undesired condition is associated with an actuation failure of the flight control surface;
- based on the dataset, determining that the flight control element is in the undesired condition;
- and
- in response to determining that the flight control element is in the undesired condition and determining that the first set of flight data is consistent with the undesired condition, landing the aircraft, comprising:
- determining an emergency landing location;
- at the first sensor, sampling a second set of flight data;
- and
- at the processor, autonomously controlling the aircraft to land at the emergency landing location based on the second set of flight data.
A method of aircraft operation, comprising:
- autonomously flying an aircraft in a normal flight mode;
- while autonomously flying the aircraft in the normal flight mode:
- sampling a first dataset at a first sensor of a first sensor type, the first dataset indicative of an undesired condition associated with a flight control element of the aircraft, wherein the undesired condition comprises an undesired vibration, wherein the first sensor is an audio sensor, and wherein the first dataset comprises audio data indicative of the undesired vibration;
- and
- sampling a second dataset at a second sensor of a second sensor type different than the first sensor type, the second dataset indicative of the undesired condition;
- based on the first and second datasets, determining that the flight control element is in the undesired condition;
- and
- in response to determining that the flight control element is in the undesired condition, flying the aircraft in a modified mode, comprising:
- sampling a set of flight data;
- at a processor of the aircraft, determining a modified flight plan based on the undesired condition;
- and
- at the processor, autonomously controlling the aircraft to fly based on the modified flight plan and the set of flight data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.