Unmanned aerial vehicle automatic landing system

Details Unmanned aerial vehicle automatic landing system Unmanned aerial vehicle automatic landing system

1996-04-22

1998-02-10

Grant, William

Aeronautics and astronautics

Aircraft control

Automatic

244187, 244190, 342 33, 364423009, 364424012, 364428, B64C 1320

Patent

active

057160325

ABSTRACT:
An automatic landing system for guiding an unmanned aerial vehicle along a predetermined path to a predetermined point on the ground. The system includes an image processing means resident in the motion compensation processor that computes aerial vehicle parameters. The computed parameters are altitude, changes in altitude, changes in pitch and yaw angles, roll angle and changes thereto, and changes in cross range and down range position. These computations are based on the movement of elements in the video of an imaging sensor onboard the aerial vehicle. The motion compensation processor also measures the distance (in pixels or picture elements) between two beacons placed a known distance apart on either side of the apparent touchdown point. A recovery control processor uses these parameters to compute both desired and actual altitude as a function of range from the vehicle to the apparent point of touchdown and to provide offset error in azimuth from the desired flight path to the landing area. The recovery control processor also computes commands for the automatic pilot on the unmanned aerial vehicle which corrects the aerial vehicle's flight path. The recovery control processor will normally be located with the motion compensation processor, either on the ground or on the aerial vehicle. The video image can either be brought to the ground over a data link or the image processing can be performed onboard the aerial vehicle.

REFERENCES:
patent: H628 (1989-04-01), McIngvale
patent: 2602923 (1952-07-01), Frazier
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patent: 5235513 (1993-08-01), Velger et al.
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Technical Report RD-GC-92-34, entitled "Laboratory Evaluation of the Enhad Automatic Target Cuer in the NLOS Missile Environment" by Pat H. McIngvale and Gregory H. Ingrum, published in Jan. 1993, by the U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

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