Aerial vehicle having non-standard priority control and blank-to-yaw control architecture
AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.
InventorMichael Szmuk
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed implementations describe systems and methods for stabilizing vertical takeoff and landing (“VTOL”) or hover flight of a degraded canted-hex aerial vehicle so that the degraded canted-hex aerial vehicle can safely navigate to a landing area. For example, upon detection of a motor-out event, the disclosed implementations may cause an opposing propulsion mechanism of the aerial vehicle to terminate operation, the prioritization of the flight controller to change, and for a feedback loop of the flight controller to provide a preferred thrust to counteract yaw torques acting on the canted-hex aerial vehicle.
Claims17
An aerial vehicle, comprising:
- a fuselage;
- six propulsion mechanisms positioned about the fuselage;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a memory storing program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to at least:
- detect a motor-out event of a first propulsion mechanism of the six propulsion mechanisms;
- in response to the motor-out event:
- terminate operation of a second propulsion mechanism of the six propulsion mechanisms;
- alter a prioritization of an allocation algorithm from a first prioritization to a second prioritization that is different than the first prioritization, wherein the allocation algorithm is operable to at least generate, in accordance with the prioritization that is active, one or more commanded RPMs for propulsion mechanisms of the six propulsion mechanisms;
- and
- activate a bank-to-yaw controller architecture that provides a closed loop feedback of at a least a preferred thrust direction to an attitude controller;
- wherein the first prioritization prioritizes a Z-torque over a Y-force;
- and
- wherein the second prioritization prioritizes the Y-force over the Z-torque such that a yaw rate of the aerial vehicle may be controlled via the Y-force.
A method to stabilize an aerial flight of an aerial vehicle, comprising:
- detecting a motor-out event of a first propulsion mechanism of an aerial vehicle;
- in response to detecting the motor-out event, terminating an operation of a second propulsion mechanism of the aerial vehicle;
- and
- altering a prioritization of an allocation algorithm of the flight controller;
- wherein altering the prioritization of the allocation algorithm of the flight controller comprises prioritizing a Y-force over a Z-torque such that a yaw rate of the aerial vehicle may be controlled via the Y-force.
A flight control system executed on one or more processors of an aerial vehicle, the flight control system operable to at least:
- detect a failure of a first propulsion mechanism of the aerial vehicle;
- in response to the detected failure:
- alter a prioritization of an allocation algorithm of the flight control system from a first prioritization that was active by the allocation algorithm prior to the detected failure, to a second prioritization, wherein the second prioritization is different than the first prioritization, and wherein the second prioritization prioritizes a Y-force over a Z-torque such that a yaw rate of the aerial vehicle may be controlled via the Y-force;
- activate a controller that provides a preferred thrust to an attitude controller of the flight control system, wherein the flight control system also receives a commanded thrust direction;
- identify a landing area;
- and
- navigate the aerial vehicle to the landing area, wherein commands sent by the flight controller that cause aerial navigation of the aerial vehicle to the landing area are determined based at least in part on the preferred thrust and the commanded thrust direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.