Ground proximity sensor
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorGerald Parras
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An unmanned aerial vehicle comprises a housing, a rotor that is rotated to propel the housing, a pressure sensor that generates a signal indicative of an air pressure proximate a bottom surface of the housing, and a processor configured to determine, based on the signal, when an increase in air pressure proximate the bottom surface is greater than or equal to a threshold value associated with the ground effect of the rotor, wherein the processor controls the rotor to cease rotating or decrease rotational speed to land the unmanned aerial vehicle upon determining that the increase in pressure is greater than or equal to the threshold value.
Claims20
An unmanned aerial vehicle comprising:
- a housing;
- a rotor that is rotated to propel the housing;
- a pressure sensor that generates a signal indicative of an air pressure proximate a bottom surface of the housing;
- and
- a processor configured to determine, based on the signal, when an increase in air pressure proximate the bottom surface is greater than or equal to a threshold value associated with the ground effect of the rotor, wherein the processor controls the rotor to cease rotating or decrease rotational speed to land the unmanned aerial vehicle upon determining that the increase in pressure is greater than or equal to the threshold value.
A method comprising:
- determining a pressure proximate a bottom surface of an air vehicle, the air vehicle comprising a rotor for propelling the air vehicle;
- determining if an increase in air pressure proximate the bottom surface of the air vehicle is greater than or equal to a threshold value associated with ground effect of the rotor;
- and
- controlling the rotor to cease rotation or slow rotational speed to land the air vehicle upon determining that the increase in pressure is greater than or equal to the threshold value.
A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:
- determine a pressure proximate a bottom surface of an air vehicle, the air vehicle comprising a rotor for propelling the air vehicle;
- determine if an increase in air pressure proximate the bottom surface of the air vehicle is greater than or equal to a threshold value associated with ground effect of the rotor;
- and
- control the rotor to cease rotation or slow rotational speed to land the air vehicle upon determining that the increase in pressure is greater than or equal to the threshold value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.