Rotorcraft control laws for sea-based operations
AssigneeSikorsky Aircraft Corporation
InventorsDerek Geiger, James Rigsby, Aaron L. Greenfield, Vineet Sahasrabudhe, Jennifer D. Goss
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system of controlling a rotorcraft for sea-based operations includes receiving sensed information indicative of an operation of the rotorcraft; receiving operator commands, ship models and system constraints; and determining a solution to an optimization function that avoids violating the system constraints, the solution being representative of control command signals for augmenting a flight response of the rotorcraft to a ship.
Claims14
A method of controlling a rotorcraft for sea-based operations, comprising:
- receiving, with a processor, sensed information indicative of an operation of the rotorcraft;
- receiving, with the processor, operator commands, ship models and system constraints including relative velocity limits between the ship and the rotorcraft, accuracy of a landing position on the ship, landing gear structural integrity, sink rate of the rotorcraft, and impact velocity of the rotorcraft on the ship;
- determining, with a model predictive control (MPC) prediction module that employs a model based feedforward control utilizing a prediction algorithm, a solution to an optimization function that avoids violating the system constraints, the solution being representative of control command signals for augmenting a flight response of the rotorcraft to a ship;
- determining, with the processor, a solution to continuously update the system constraints that optimize a cost function utilizing MPC theory;
- and
- commanding the displacement of servos and linkages for controlling said rotorcraft.
A control system of a rotorcraft during sea-based operations, comprising:
- rotors, each rotor comprising a plurality of blades;
- a processor;
- and
- memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
- receive, with the processor, sensed information indicative of an operation of the rotorcraft;
- receive, with the processor, operator commands, ship models and system constraints including relative velocity limits between the ship and the rotorcraft, accuracy of a landing position on the ship, landing gear structural integrity, sink rate of the rotorcraft, and impact velocity of the rotorcraft on the ship;
- determine, with a model predictive control (MPC) prediction module that employs a model based feedforward control utilizing a prediction algorithm, a solution to an optimization function that avoids violating the system constraints, the solution being representative of control command signals for controlling the rotors of the rotorcraft approaching a ship;
- determine, with the processor, a solution to continuously update the system constraints that optimize a cost function utilizing MPC theory;
- and
- command the displacement of servos and linkages for controlling said rotorcraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.