933 results about "Flight formation" patented technology

A display presents to the viewer the outputs of a dual mode Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) / Intra-Formation Position Collision Avoidance System (IFPCAS). IFPCAS requires the cooperation of a least two formation follower aircraft in conjunction with the formation lead aircraft. The display indicates the relative velocity of the other formation follower aircraft, with respect to the formation lead aircraft, in addition to other types of information.

A flightpath guidance system and method is disclosed for using moving waypoints for a curved route plan such as a Bezier curve. The actual location of a vehicle and a leading target point along the path are used to provide commanded guidance of the vehicle along the path and to correct for disturbances from the intended route. Waypoints along the path may be moving with respect to the reference frame in which the vehicle is measured. Curved flightpath guidance using moving waypoints may be used for aerial rendezvous and refueling, multiple vehicle applications such as formation flying and battlefield formation grouping, and carrier landing. Further application includes air traffic control and commercial flight guidance systems.

An integrated system for automatic formation flight control of multiple vehicles such as aircraft, helicopters, or space platforms. The system is used to control multiple aircraft in a pre-determined flight formation and provide positive identification, control and discrete communications between any number of aircraft in order to prevent mid-air collisions between aircraft in formation flight. The system includes a processor located on the aircraft to enable communications, position computations and control messaging between any number of aircraft in formation flight, a communications transceiver located on the aircraft that provides discrete communication links to any number of aircraft or aircraft in formation flight, an autopilot, an autothrottle and a display. On aircraft, the system will display the current formation and aircraft relative positions under control by the system. The system may also be used to circumvent control of a hijacked aircraft through control system intervention provided through this invention.

A system for autonomously keeping an aircraft's station in a formation flight of a plurality of aircraft includes a navigation system configured to determine a position of an aircraft. A data link is configured to allow the aircraft to communicate data with at least one other aircraft in the formation flight of the plurality of aircraft. A sensor is configured to detect a presence of another aircraft within a predetermined distance of the aircraft. A processor is configured to provide control signals to the aircraft's autoflight system to keep the aircraft at a predetermined station relative to the other of the plurality of aircraft in the formation flight.

Method and apparatus for providing real-time data indicative of the isotopic composition of formation fluids during drilling. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing a reference fluid having a known isotopic composition in a reference cell; (b) capturing a sample of formation; (c) providing at least one laser beam; (e) passing a beam through the reference fluid, measuring the reference-measurement beam before and after it passes through the reference fluid; (f) and passing a beam through the sample, measuring the beam before and after it passes through the sample, and calculating a first isotope concentration from those measurements. The measurements can provide information relating to the carbon isotopic composition of individual compounds in hydrocarbon gas mixtures, with the individual compounds including methane, ethane, propane, iso- or normal butane, or iso- or normal pentane.

A totally integrated system for automatic formation flight control of multiple vehicles not limited to aircraft, helicopters, or space platforms. For instance, the system may be used to control any number of aircraft in a pre-determined flight formation and provide “positive” identification, control and discrete communications between any number of vehicles. Thus the invention prevents mid-air collisions between vehicles in formation flight. The system generally includes a processor located on the vehicles to enable communications, unique position computations and control messaging between any number of aircraft in formation flight, a communications transceiver located on the vehicle that provides discrete communication links to any number of aircraft in formation flight an autopilot and a display. The processor may take into consideration velocity, direction, winds aloft, wing tip clearance of any number of vehicles. On aircraft, the system will display the current formation and vehicles relative position under control by this invention. The system may be overridden in flight.

A position keeping system, useable to maintain a position of a vehicle in a vehicle formation, to keep all formation members flying at a specified velocity and altitude, and to perform commanded maneuvers, determines guidance corrections based on a track state referenced to a leader or a virtual leader of the formation and on a formation position error indicating the error in the position of the vehicle in the formation. The guidance corrections are required so as to maintain the vehicles in the formation.

The invention discloses a collaborative flight path intelligent planning method for formation flying of unmanned planes under a dynamic environment. The method comprises the steps of offline intelligent planning of a formation pre-flying collaborative flight path of the unmanned planes, online replanning of the flight path for avoiding threats, collaborative rebuilding of a formation team and the like. The offline intelligent planning of the formation pre-flying collaborative flight path of the unmanned planes adopts an intelligent planning method based on a Voronoi graph and an ant colony algorithm, and an integrated optimal pre-flying flight path with collaborative time can be planned off line for the unmanned plane. The replanning of the online flight path adopts an intelligent flight path planning method based on an RRT (Rail Rapid Transit) algorithm, and quick flight path correction can be provided when the unmanned plane formation meets a sudden threat. The collaborative rebuilding of the formation team adopts a method combining unmanned plane formation member flying speed adjustment and coiling maneuvering. According to the method, pre-flying collaborative flight path offline planning and generation of online replanned flight path are provided for the unmanned plane formation, a collaborative rebuilding scheme is provided, and the online rebuilding problem of unmanned plane formation flying cooperativity is solved.

The invention relates to a method for cooperative search and dynamic task allocation of unmanned aerial vehicle teams under an uncertain environment, and not only puts forward a cooperative dynamic task allocation strategy of unmanned aerial vehicle teams, but also designs a concrete guidance law. By adopting an arc air route as the air route by which unmanned aerial vehicles performing tasks, the method includes: step 1. determining the data structure of single unmanned aerial vehicle maintenance; step 2. determining the flight mode of unmanned aerial vehicles; step 3. determining the dominant function of task performing of the unmanned aerial vehicles; step 4. determining a dynamic task allocation process; and step 5. determining the guidance law of aerial vehicle search and task performing. Compared with modern optimization algorithm based task allocation methods, the method provided in the invention reduces the computation load of single unmanned aerial vehicle, and is suitable for conditions characterized by strong real-time performance and uncertain environment. Compared with market mechanism auction algorithm based task allocation methods, the method reduces the times of communication performed among unmanned aerial vehicles and the computation load of single unmanned aerial vehicle, and guarantees the real-time performance of broadcast unmanned aerial vehicles during task performing.

The invention discloses a vehicle cooperative formation driving system, belonging to the field of vehicle network-connected automatic driving. The vehicle cooperative formation driving system comprises a network layer, a link layer, a coordination layer, a control layer and a physical layer from top to bottom; wherein a vehicular unit in the network layer is communicated with a wireless router inthe link layer through a wireless network; the wireless router is communicated with a central service unit CSU and a road side unit RSU respectively through Ethernet; and the ZeroMQ communication is adopted by the central service unit CSU and the road side unit RSU. The vehicle cooperative formation driving system adds low cost vehicular sensors such as vision and millimeter wave radars, and integrates perception fusion, path planning and decision control into a same software architecture, so as to integrate vehicle road environment information, and achieve reliable vehicle formation driving function through high precision controllers; the vehicle cooperative formation driving system is in line with the development trend of the network-connected vehicle formation driving, which is highly modular and easy to expand function; and the decentralized following strategy can reduce the impact of network communication uncertainty.

The invention belongs to the field of networking automatic driving of vehicles, and discloses a cooperative vehicle formation driving method and a cooperative vehicle formation driving system. Sensinginformation of vehicles and absolute position information of the vehicles are captured for sensing fusion, path planning and decision-making control, and road environment information of the vehiclesis integrated to implement formation converging, following, quitting, parking and cooperative lane changing co-driving strategies for the vehicles. According to the method and the system, connection of all modules and direct communication between the modules are implemented in a 5G (5th-generation) manner, meanwhile, low-cost vehicle-mounted sensors such as a visual sensor and a millimeter wave radar are additionally arranged, sensing fusion, path planning and decision-making control are integrated into the same software architecture, the road environment information of the vehicles is integrated, and a reliable vehicle formation driving function is realized by a high-accuracy controller. The system is consistent with the development trend of networking vehicle formation driving, high in modulation degree and easy to functionally extend, and by a decentralized following strategy, the influence of uncertainties of network communication can be reduced.

A system and method for controlling vehicular traffic flow is disclosed, which creates a communication system between vehicles that allows the vehicles to share their respective velocities and acceleration or deceleration rates. Thus, each vehicle within the system can respond immediately to any acceleration or deceleration rate changes of the surrounding vehicles (e.g., the vehicle directly in front, directly in back, and in the adjacent lane). Essentially, the system functions similar to a wireless vehicular train, with a queue of cars linked together by a stiff, wireless communications “chain”. Notably, the term “vehicle” is not limited only to land-based vehicles (e.g., motor vehicles), and the system can include airborne vehicles (e.g., multiple aircraft flying in close formation, military aircraft flying in drone formation, etc.). For example, a system for controlling vehicular traffic flow is disclosed, which includes in each vehicle of a plurality of vehicles, a wireless or infrared (IR) modem for inter-vehicular communications, a range finder for determining the distance and closing rate between vehicles, a processing unit for retrieving vehicular operational data (e.g., velocity, angular velocity, acceleration rate, deceleration rate, braking pressure, weight, pointing vector, etc.) and executing flow control system software instructions, and a vehicular flow control communications protocol that enables the communication of various flow control parameters between vehicles via the wireless or IR modem. Thus, each vehicle in the system “knows” what the surrounding vehicles are doing and can respond immediately to changes in the traffic flow. As such, the system minimizes the distribution of vehicles' velocities in the queue, and increases traffic throughput and safety as a result.

An aircraft formation positioning system lead aircraft transmits a continuous RF signal and a periodic data burst with lead aircraft position. A follower aircraft receives the continuous RF signal and the periodic data burst. A follower aircraft resolver determines bearing, distance and elevation relative to the lead aircraft from the continuous RF signal. The follower aircraft transmits an intermittent RF signal and a periodic data burst with its relative position determined from the continuous RF signal. The lead aircraft receives the intermittent RF signal and the periodic data burst from the follower aircraft. A lead aircraft resolver performs an independent measurement of the lead aircraft position relative to the follower aircraft from the intermittent RF signal. A lead aircraft Kalman filter connected to the lead aircraft resolver and receiver correlates the independent measurement of the lead aircraft position relative to the follower aircraft with the received periodic data burst.

Aerial dispersion systems that may be employed to allow rapid and temporary conversion of aircraft for aerial dispersion purposes, such as aerial fire-fighting. The aerial dispersion systems may be implemented using modular components that may be configured for compatibility with conventional cargo loading and unloading systems of modern aircraft, including side-loading cargo systems of wide body passenger and cargo aircraft having high lift capacities. The aerial dispersion systems may be rapidly installed in a large fleet of high capacity aircraft in response to a wildfire or other rapidly-developing emergency such as an oil spill, chemical or biological contamination incident, building or refinery fire, etc. After use, the aircraft of the fleet may be rapidly de-modified and returned to original condition. The aerial dispersion systems may be operated with a fleet of aircraft in a coordinated manner, for example, as part of an aerial firefighting formation having multiple aircraft sharing information and / or common control.

An aircraft formation / refueling guidance system guides a follower aircraft relative to a leader aircraft. A datalink provides a position hold and a bias command from the leader aircraft to the follower aircraft. An optical tracker onboard the follower aircraft takes an image of the leader aircraft when receiving the hold command, tracks the leader aircraft using the image, and provides optical tracker movement outputs. A resolver resolves the optical tracker movement outputs to provide resolver control signals. A vernier control receives the bias command to change a position of the follower aircraft by biasing the resolver control signals with a bias signal. A sum circuit connected to the resolver and to the vernier control receives the resolver control signals and the bias signal to provide a sum circuit output signal. An autopilot and autothrottle receives the sum circuit output signal and the position hold command to control the follower aircraft.

Method and apparatus for providing real-time data indicative of the isotopic composition of formation fluids during drilling. The method includes the steps of: (a) providing a reference fluid having a known isotopic composition in a reference cell; (b) capturing a sample of formation; (c) providing at least one laser beam; (e) passing a beam through the reference fluid, measuring the reference-measurement beam before and after it passes through the reference fluid; (f) and passing a beam through the sample, measuring the beam before and after it passes through the sample, and calculating a first isotope concentration from those measurements. The measurements can provide information relating to the carbon isotopic composition of individual compounds in hydrocarbon gas mixtures, with the individual compounds including methane, ethane, propane, iso- or normal butane, or iso- or normal pentane.

The invention discloses a multi-unmanned-aerial-vehicle cluster to-the-ground observation system and a formation control method thereof. The system comprises a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles. A plurality of ground stations corresponding to the unmanned aerial vehicles in a one-to-one mode are arranged on the ground, and the ground stations carry out information interaction through a task management machine. The unmanned aerial vehicles send waypoint information to the corresponding ground stations. The ground stations are used for receiving the waypoint information sent by the unmanned aerial vehicles and sending the waypoint information to the task management machine. The task management machine is used for receiving the waypoint information sent by the ground stations and controlling the formation of the unmanned aerial vehicles according to the waypoint information. By adopting the system and the method, the capability of multi-mode, multi-angle and high-reliability data acquisition in a variety of environments can be realized through precision formation. Operation is simple and efficient. The system is stable and reliable.

A system for autonomously keeping an aircraft's station in a formation flight of a plurality of aircraft includes a navigation system configured to determine a position of an aircraft. A data link is configured to allow the aircraft to communicate data with at least one other aircraft in the formation flight of the plurality of aircraft. A sensor is configured to detect a presence of another aircraft within a predetermined distance of the aircraft. A processor is configured to provide control signals to the aircraft's autoflight system to keep the aircraft at a predetermined station relative to the other of the plurality of aircraft in the formation flight.

The invention discloses a hierarchical target allocation method for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle formations. The method is characterized by comprising the following steps of 1, clustering a plurality of ground targets to form a plurality of target clusters according to the number of the unmanned aerial vehicle formations; 2, regulating the obtained target clusters to keep the number of the ground targets in each target cluster consistent; 3, allocating the target clusters to the unmanned aerial vehicle formations in a one-to-one correspondence way by using an inter-unmanned aerial vehicle formation target allocation model and an inter-unmanned aerial vehicle formation target allocation algorithm; 4, allocating the ground targets to each unmanned aerial vehicle in the unmanned aerial vehicle formations by using an intra-unmanned aerial vehicle formation target allocation model and an intra-unmanned aerial vehicle formation target allocation algorithm. According to the method, the target allocation efficiency can be improved, and the problem of excessively long calculation time during large-scale target allocation for the multiple unmanned aerial vehicle formations can be effectively solved, so that the requirements of an application scenario such as a battlefield with a higher requirement on real-time performance are met.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle formation method based on a small bird cluster flight mechanism. The unmanned aerial vehicle formation method includes the implementation steps that 1, an unmanned aerial vehicle communication network based on a bird flock hierarchical structure is designed; 2, a formation navigator based on bird flock foraging behaviors is designed; 3, a formation controller based on bird flock neighbor interaction behaviors is designed; 4, a flight mode switching device based on bird flock behaviors is designed. Through the method, formation and shaping of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles can be realized stably, and the method adapts to different task environments, and provides the feasible technical means for large-scale cluster formation of small unmanned aerial vehicles.

In a method for the flight control of a plurality of aircraft flying in formation with respect to one another, correction signals are generated for an autopilot system or a command display in order to allow one or more following aircraft within the formation to follow a lead aircraft in the formation in a predeterminable relative position. A nominal trajectory of the following aircraft, parallel to the trajectory (1) of the lead aircraft, is calculated at each instantaneous position P′act of the following aircraft, which trajectory runs through the instantaneous actual position P′act and a reference point P′RP. (The reference point P′RP is the projection of a point PRP, which is separated by the longitudinal nominal distance xnom between the lead aircraft and the following aircraft, on the trajectory of the lead aircraft, taking into account the lateral and vertical actual distances yact and zact between the trajectory of the lead aircraft and that of the following aircraft. The trajectory of the following aircraft is calculated taking into account the lateral actual distance yact from the trajectory of the lead aircraft by determining support points P′ on the trajectory of the following aircraft which have the same time coordinates as the corresponding support points on the trajectory of the lead aircraft. The correction signals are determined by i) measuring the longitudinal, lateral and vertical actual distances xact, vact and zact between the trajectory of the lead aircraft and that of the following aircraft at the instantaneous position P′act of the following aircraft, ii) calculating the longitudinal deviation Δx, the vertical deviation Δz and the lateral deviation Δy of the instantaneous actual position P′act and of the nominal position P′nom of the following aircraft from the respective nominal values xnom, znom, ynom and the measured actual values xact, zact, yact, iii) calculating the nominal speed and the nominal acceleration of the following aircraft at the point P′RP, and iv) calculating the nominal curvature, the nominal climbing rate and the nominal curvature angle Ψ of the trajectory of the following aircraft at the instantaneous position P′act of the following aircraft.

A flightpath guidance system and method is disclosed for using moving waypoints for a curved route plan such as a Bezier curve. The actual location of a vehicle and a leading target point along the path are used to provide commanded guidance of the vehicle along the path and to correct for disturbances from the intended route. Waypoints along the path may be moving with respect to the reference frame in which the vehicle is measured. Curved flightpath guidance using moving waypoints may be used for aerial rendezvous and refueling, multiple vehicle applications such as formation flying and battlefield formation grouping, and carrier landing. Further application includes air traffic control and commercial flight guidance systems.

The invention provides an ethernet-exchange-bus-based unmanned plane flight control system and method. The system comprises a flight control computer (ARM), a flight indication lamp control module (LED+), an ultrasonic sensor, a light stream sensor, a power management unit (PMU), a storage battery, an inertia management unit (IMU), a satellite navigation unit (GPS / BD+), a motor, and a steering engine. An Ethernet exchange chip (LAN swtich) is embedded into the flight control computer (ARM) and is connected with the flight control computer (ARM) by an LAN and is connected with a flight control peripheral module by an LAN. The system and method have the following beneficial effects: a communication link between an unmanned plane and the ground is simplified; a high-definition digital image can be returned to the ground in real time or be connected to the interne or be passed back to a command center; the visual navigation, obstacle avoidance, and image target identification tracking are supported; the communication demand of the unmanned plane formation flight is satisfied; the traditional IOSD equipment as well as the investment are saved; and the new function of the modularized smooth extension flight control is supported.

The invention discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) combined formation cooperative control method, comprising the following steps: step 1, establishing nonlinear dynamical models of unmanned vehicles in UAV-UGV combined formation; step 2, processing the nonlinear dynamical models of a UAV and a UGV via equivalent transformation, and taking acceleration as a common control target quantity, obtaining a unified control model taking acceleration as a control input in the combined formation; step 3, establishing a ground-air combined formation structure based on a virtual pilot to obtain a stable control signal for the UAV-UGV combined formation and obtain an error model of the combined formation, wherein the control signal is acceleration obtained in step 2 as a common control target quantity; and step 4, designing a UAV-UGV combined formation controller by adopting a RBF (Radial Basis Function) network algorithm according to the control model, the error model and the acceleration serving as a control signal and a control target quantity at the same time, so that the combined formation is stable and reliable.

The invention relates to a design method for the formation configuration of distributed satellites with synthetic aperture radars (SAR). The method comprises the following five operation steps: step 1: designing the formation configuration of the distributed satellites and conforming fly-by path equations; step 2: confirming an optimal base line length range of the distributed satellites in start time; step 3: confirming an optimal base line sequence of the distributed satellites in start time; step 4: confirming track parameters of the formed satellites forming a concentric circle configuration; and step 5: calculating effective base lines and vertical path base lines in a track period. The invention provides the concentric circle formation configuration, uses the optimal base line combined constraint conditions of multi-base line interference SARs as design input parameters and designs a control law of radar antenna visual angles to realize that a distributed satellite SAR system can satisfy the design requirements of the optimal base line combined constraint conditions in any time in a track operation period and a basis is provided for the distributed satellite SAR system to obtain high-precision DEM products by a multi-base line interference SAR treatment method.

The invention discloses an air-based large-scene photographing system and method. The system is composed of a multi-rotor unmanned machine set subsystem, a multi-rotor unmanned machine flight ground control subsystem and a ground image data processing and display terminal subsystem. According to the air-based large-scene photographing system and method, multiple multi-rotor unmanned machines are controlled to conduct the formation flight by additionally hanging cameras below the multi-rotor unmanned machines, the reasonable position layout of multiple aircrafts is achieved in space near the ground, and images photographed by the unmanned machines are sent back to the ground in real time; the ground image data processing and display terminal subsystem receives the image data, projection converting and splicing processing are conducted on the images photographed by the multi-rotor unmanned machines through an image analyzing and machine vision technology, and finally two-dimensional splicing on remote large-scene scenes is formed. The system is suitable for rebuilding of large scenes and observing and measuring of points of impact when various military exercises and target practicing and shooting are conducted.

The invention relates to a spacecraft fault tolerance attitude cooperation tracking control method based on a normalized neural network, and belongs to the technical field of spacecraft formation flight. According to the method, an attitude motion model of a single spacecraft is built, errors are defined, a control law is designed for the model, a sliding mode function is designed, the derivative of the sliding mode function is solved, an error model is obtained, a control law based on an input normalized neural network is designed, and the states of the spacecrafts are cooperative and consistent; each spacecraft calculates the required control torque according to attitude information of itself and the adjacent spacecraft, the calculated control torque is acted on the corresponding spacecraft via an execution mechanism of each spacecraft, the angular velocity is solved via an obtained attitude dynamic equation, a unit quaternion attitude tracks an expected attitude via the attitude dynamic equation, and consistent attitude of the spacecraft formation is finally realized. According to the method, estimation errors of non-linear function approximation are reduced, the calculating time is reduced, and the convergence rate and the control precision of the system are increased.

An autonomous navigation, guidance, and control process for docking and formation flying by utilizing the laser dynamic range imager (LDRI) and key technologies, including fuzzy logic based guidance and control, optical flow calculation (including cross-correlation, phase-correlation, and image differential), software design and implementation, and verification methods. The autonomous navigation, guidance, and control process includes the steps of providing an expected reference position relative to a target; generating a carrier position and attitude relative to said target by a Range and Intensity Images Provider; producing a relative position and attitude error; and producing control commands from said relative position and attitude error for relative motion dynamics.

The invention discloses a decoupling control method for relative orbits and attitudes of formation satellites, relates to the technical field of the control of the orbits and attitudes of a spacecraft formation, and solves the problems of large satellite calculation amount and low orbit solving efficiency caused by high control dimension of the formation satellites due to serious coupling of the relative orbits and the attitudes of the formation satellites. The method gives two decoupling conditions at first, so that the control of the relative orbits and the attitudes can be designed independently; a thrust vector mobility decoupling constraint condition is introduced to the initialization control of the relative orbits according to satellite attitude mobility constraints indirectly; and during the optimal thrust vector attitude tracking, the possible orientation in space, which meets solar avoidance constraints, of a star sensor optical axis (1) is sought by using a geometric method, and the optimal attitude quaternion and attitude angular velocity are calculated finally by using a double-vector attitude determination algorithm. The method provides important reference value for the control of the orbits and the attitudes of the spacecraft formation.