US 2026/0277213 A1Published application

Integrity of navigation system for uncrewed aircraft systems at vertiports

AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.

InventorVibhor L. Bageshwar

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Abstract

A system comprises a vision sensor on a vehicle; an onboard IMU that produces inertial measurements; an onboard strapdown INS that receives the inertial measurements; an onboard first processor coupled to the vision sensor; and an onboard second processor coupled to the strapdown INS and the first processor. A navigation solution integrity module is in operative communication with the second processor. The navigation solution integrity module includes a fault detection function with a set of discriminators, decision thresholds, and protection levels. The first processor hosts program modules that extract landing marker information and comprise computer vision and machine learning modules that operate in parallel. The second processor hosts program modules that provide filter and association functions. The navigation solution integrity module provides a marker integrity check, which detects and excludes landing markers with three or four corners that lead to an inconsistent navigation solution, using a solution separation technique.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

at least one vision sensor mounted on a vehicle;
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) operative to produce inertial measurements for the vehicle;
a strapdown inertial navigation system (INS) on the vehicle and configured to receive the inertial measurements from the IMU,
at least one first processor on the vehicle and operatively coupled to the at least one vision sensor;
at least one second processor on the vehicle and operatively coupled to the strapdown INS and the at least one first processor;
and
a navigation solution integrity module in operative communication with at least one second processor, the navigation solution integrity module including a fault detection function with a set of discriminators, decision thresholds, and protection levels;
wherein the at least one first processor hosts a first set of program modules operative for extracting landing marker information, the first set of program modules comprising a computer vision module and a machine learning module that are configured to operate in parallel with each other;
wherein the at least one second processor hosts a second set of program modules operative to provide filter and association functions, the second set of program modules comprising a navigation filter and an association checks module;
wherein the navigation solution integrity module is operative to provide a marker integrity check, which detects and excludes landing markers with three or four corners that lead to an inconsistent navigation solution, using a solution separation technique.

7 more elements

A method comprising:

providing a first processing unit in a vehicle having a vision sensor mounted thereon, the first processing unit hosting a first set of program modules comprising a computer vision algorithm and a machine learning algorithm, which operate in parallel with each other;
providing a second processing unit in the vehicle, the second processing unit in communication with an onboard strapdown inertial navigation system (INS) and the first processing unit, the second processing unit hosting a second set of program modules comprising a navigation filter and an association checks module;
and
providing a navigation solution integrity module in communication with the second processing unit, the navigation solution integrity module including a fault detection function with a set of discriminators, decision thresholds, and protection levels, the navigation solution integrity module including a solution separation filter arrangement that performs a process comprising:
at a main solution level including a main filter, incorporating landing markers S contributing to a navigation solution into the main filter;
and
at a sub-solutions level including a set of sub-filters branched from the main filter, incorporating combinations of S-1 landing markers contributing to the navigation solution into the sub-filters, and excluding a different one of the landing markers in each of the sub-filters;
wherein the navigation solution integrity module provides a marker integrity check by detecting and excluding landing markers with three or four corners that lead to an inconsistent navigation solution, using the solution separation filter arrangement.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.