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US 10,901,434 B2Granted
Distributed flight control system
AssigneeKitty Hawk Corporation
InventorsMark Johnson Cutler, Todd Reichert, James Jackson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A set of commands for each of a plurality of actuators to alter an aircraft's state responsive to one or more inputs is produced. The set of commands is provided to fewer than all actuators comprising the plurality of actuators.
Claims18
A flight control system, comprising:
- a lower level flight computer configured to:
- determine instructions for one or more actuators associated with the lower level flight computer to achieve a desired attitude or rate of attitude change responsive to input received from at least one of an upper level flight computer and a pilot, wherein the input indicates the desired attitude or the rate of attitude change;
- produce a set of commands for each of the plurality of actuators to alter a position of a respective actuator based on the determined instructions;
- and
- provide the set of commands to the respective actuator without providing the set of commands to another actuator,
- wherein the lower level flight computer is communicatively decoupled from other lower level flight computers, and is configured to control directly and individually the respective actuator of the plurality of actuators,
- wherein each of the other lower level flight computers are associated with one or more corresponding other actuators and provide corresponding instructions to control the one or more corresponding other actuators to achieve the desired attitude or rate of attitude change.
4 more elements
A flight control system, comprising:
- an upper level flight computer configured to:
- determine at least one of a velocity and position for an aircraft based on a received input;
- determine at least one of a desired attitude and a desired rate of attitude change based on the received input;
- provide the determined at least one of the attitude and the rate of attitude change to a lower level flight computer, wherein the lower level flight computer is communicatively decoupled from other lower level flight computers, and is configured to control directly and individually a respective actuator of a plurality of actuators and configured to:
- determine instructions for one or more actuators associated with the lower level flight computer responsive to the least one of the attitude and the rate of attitude;
- produce a set of commands for each of the plurality of actuators to alter a position of the respective actuator based on the determined instructions;
- and
- provide the set of commands to the respective actuator without providing the set of commands to another actuator,
- wherein each of the other lower level flight computers are associated with one or more corresponding other actuators and provide corresponding instructions to control the one or more corresponding other actuators to achieve the desired attitude or rate of attitude change.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.