Vertical take-off-and-landing unmanned aerial vehicle system capable of landing on uneven or sloped terrain
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsHoa G. Nguyen, Aaron B. Burmeister
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Abstract
A system for landing, comprising a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) having landing gear, wherein the landing gear is telescopic and comprises a sensor, and wherein the landing gear is compressed upon landing on a surface, and the compression causes a signal to be sent to a system that computes the slope of the ground surface using the length of the compressed landing gear and the attitude of the UAV. If the center of gravity falls within the support area, the legs are locked and the UAV power is turned off. If the center of gravity falls outside the support area, the UAV is forced to take off and find a safer landing spot.
Claims19
A system for landing, comprising:
- a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) having a known center of gravity (CoG), wherein the UAV further comprises telescopic landing gear that is compressed upon landing on a surface, and an internal computer system configured to sense when the landing gear is compressed and the level of compression.
A system for landing comprising a UAV having landing gear, wherein the landing gear further comprises a plurality of sensors, and wherein the landing gear is compressed upon reaching a surface, and wherein the plurality of sensors sends a signal to a computer that computes the length of the compressed landing gear, then uses the length of the compressed landing gear to compute the slope of the surface.
A method of landing on a sloped surface comprising the steps of:
- having a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with a known center of gravity, wherein the VTOL UAV further comprises telescopic landing gear comprising touch and compression sensors, wherein the landing gear is compressed upon touching a surface;
- sending touch and compression information via the sensors to a computer inside the VTOL UAV allowing for calculation of slope and area of support;
- using the computer to determine whether the center of gravity falls inside the area of support;
- using the computer to direct the VTOL UAV to land and fully power off if the center of gravity falls inside the area of support.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.