High altitude platform control system
AssigneeHughes Electronics Corporation
InventorDavid W. Lloyd
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for controlling a movable appendage on an aerospace vehicle independent from the position of the aerospace vehicle. First and second beacons containing actual position information for the movable appendage are tracked and acquired by first and second beacon tracking sites. The beacon tracking sites report the azimuth and elevation data relating to the position of the movable appendage to a processor where a correction command is determined based on an error calculated from the position data and a desired position. The correction command is communicated to the movable appendage so that appropriate correction to the desired position can be made.
Claims15
A stratospheric platform communications system having beam forming capability, said system comprising:
- a stratospheric aircraft;
- first and second downlink beacons generated by said beam forming capability, said first and second downlink beacons having actual position information;
- a first tracking site for acquiring and tracking said first downlink beacon;
- a second tracking site spaced a predetermined distance from said first tracking site, said second tracking site for acquiring and tracking said second downlink beacon;
- and
- a processor in communication with said first and second tracking sites and said stratospheric aircraft, said processor for receiving actual position information from said first and second tracking sites to calculate an error between said actual position and a desired position, said error being used by said processor to calculate a correction command that is sent to said stratospheric aircraft.
A closed-loop control system for a high altitude platform, comprising:
- a beam former on said platform for generating first and second beacons;
- first and second beacon tracking sites for respectively acquiring and tracking said first and second beacons,
- a processor for receiving position data relating to said platform from said first and second beacon tracking sites, computing any errors between the actual position of said platform and a desired position of said platform, and generating and transmitting, to said platform, commands necessary to null the errors.
A closed-loop control method for a movable platform, comprising:
- generating first and second beacons on-board the movable platform;
- acquiring and tracking the first and second beacons respectively using first and second beacon tracking sites;
- transmitting position data from the first and second beacon tracking sites to a processor;
- computing, in the processor, any errors between the actual position of the movable platform and a desired position of the movable platform;
- generating commands necessary to null the errors, and move the movable platform to the desired position, and
- transmitting the commands from the processor to the moveable platform.
A method of tracking a high altitude control platform, comprising:
- generating first and second beacons on-board the platform;
- acquiring and tracking the first and second beacons respectively using first and second beacon tracking sites;
- transmitting data about the position of the platform to a ground-based processor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.