Abstract:
An unmanned air vehicle comprises a fuselage that defines aerodynamic flight surfaces, an engine mounted to the fuselage having an engine shaft arranged to rotate about a longitudinal axis with respect to the fuselage, and a propeller mounted to the engine shaft so as to rotate to thereby provide thrust. The aircraft also comprises a gyroscopic stabilization member coupled to the shaft such that rotation of the engine shaft results in rotation of the gyroscopic member. Thus, there is more stability during the entire flight envelope. In one embodiment, the gyroscopic stabilization member is comprised of a ring that is attached to the outer ends of the blades of the propeller and the ring is also selected so as to have a mass that will result in the gyroscopic stabilization member having a sufficient angular momentum so as to gyroscopically stabilize the aircraft.
Abstract:
An aerial vehicle including a toroidal fuselage having a longitudinal axis, and a duct extending along the longitudinal axis between a leading edge and a trailing edge of the fuselage, first and second counter-rotating, variable pitch rotor assemblies coaxially mounted within the duct of the fuselage, and at least one canard wing secured to the toroidal fuselage and having a leading edge positioned out of the duct of the fuselage and axially forward of the leading edge of the fuselage, wherein at least a portion of the canard wing comprises a control surface having a variable angle of attack. The invention provides an aerial vehicle that can take-off and land vertically, hover for extended periods of time over a fixed spatial point, and operate in confined areas. The aerial vehicle also has the ability to transition between a hover and high speed forward flight.
Abstract:
A flight control system includes a blending algorithm which evaluates the current flight regime and determines the effectiveness of the flight controls to effect the rotational moment of a hybrid vehicle about the roll axis. Gain schedules for both roll cyclic and aileron control provide a quantitative measure of control effectiveness. Based on the respective gain schedules, the algorithm determines how much of the control commands should be sent to each control surface. The result is that for a given control command, the same amount of roll moment will be generated regardless of flight regime. This simplifies the underlying flight control law since the commands it generates are correct regardless of flight regime.
Abstract:
An anti-submarine warfare system includes an unmanned “sea-sitting” aircraft housing submarine detecting equipment, the aircraft including a body portion having a catamaran configuration adapted for stably supporting the body portion when sitting in water, the body portion including a fuselage and laterally disposed sponsons connected to the fuselage via platforms, and submarine detecting equipment housed within the fuselage and adapted to be electronically linked to sonobuoys disposed in adjacent water locations.
Abstract:
The vehicle is constructed from a flat disc recessed in a slot in a thin, pencil-like fuselage having aft and front propulsion engines and mounted for rotating about the center of the disc and about an axis extending transversely to the disc and to the direction of extension of the fuselage.
Abstract:
A flight vehicle comprises a vehicle body with a duct having a longitudinal axis extending through the body, and a fan for inducing a flow of ambient air through the duct from an inlet end to an outlet end to provide a thrust acting along the axis of the duct. A system of control is provided for varying the attitude of the vehicle without re-directing or substantially re-directing the thrust whereby the vehicle is capable of controlled flight from a take-off mode in which the axis of the duct is vertical or substantially vertical, to a forward flight mode in which the axis of the duct is inclined to the vertical. A pair of wings are provided on the outer surface of the body, the wings being on opposite sides of the body and having no or substantially no dihedral.
Abstract:
The aircraft comprises a fuselage defining a fuselage main axis. The fuselage comprises a docking system for fixing removable nacelles. The aircraft has wings equipped with tilting actuators for rotating wings about rotation axes parallel to the fuselage main axis and at least six propellers mechanically connected to the fuselage. The aircraft also has at least one cryo-hydrogen tank and at least one fuel cell for supplying power to the propellers, and A capacitor for supplying power to the propellers, charged by at least one fuel cell. This capacitor stores electrical energy greater than the energy needed by all the propellers for ten seconds of hovering flight. Each propeller is equipped with a tilting actuator for rotating the propeller about a rotation axis making an angle of less than 45 degrees with a plane perpendicular to the fuselage main axis. The fuselage having a forward and a rear portion defining a forward to rear order of the propellers, in cruise flight, the two forward propellers are activated to provide vertical thrust, the intermediate propellers between the forward and rearmost propellers are not activated and the two rearmost propellers are activated to provide horizontal thrust.
Abstract:
A method of operating a multicopter comprising a body and n thrusters, each thruster independently actuated to vector thrust angularly relative to the body about at least a first axis, the method comprising modelling dynamics of the multicopter with a mathematical model comprising coupled, non-linear combinations of thruster variables, decoupling the mathematical model into linear combinations of thruster control variables, sensing at least one characteristic of multicopter dynamics, comparing the sensed data with corresponding target characteristic(s), computing adjustments in thruster control variables for reducing the difference between the sensed data and the target characteristic(s) according to a control algorithm, and actuating each thruster according to the computed thruster control variables to converge the multicopter towards the target characteristic(s), wherein the control algorithm is based on the decoupled mathematical model such that each thruster control variable can be adjusted independently.
Abstract:
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for unmanned flight optimization. A system for unmanned flight comprises a set of motors configured to provide locomotion to an unmanned aerial vehicle, a set of wings coupled to a body of the unmanned aerial vehicle via an actuator and configured to move relative to the body of the unmanned aerial vehicle, a sensor system on the unmanned aerial vehicle, and a control circuit. The control circuit being configured to: control the unmanned aerial vehicle, cause the set of motors to lift the unmanned aerial vehicle, detect condition parameters based on the sensor system, determine a position for the set of wings based on the condition parameters, and cause the actuator to move the set of wings to the wing position while the unmanned aerial vehicle is in flight.
Abstract:
An aerial vehicle is includes a wing, first and second rotors, and a movement sensor. The first and second multicopter rotors are rotatably coupled to the wing, the first multicopter rotor is rotatable relative to the wing about a first lateral axis, and the second multicopter rotor is rotatable relative to the wing about a second lateral axis. Each multicopter rotor is coupled to each other multicopter rotor, wherein the multicopter rotors are restricted to collective synchronous rotation relative to the wing between a multicopter configuration and a fixed-wing configuration. The movement sensor is coupled to the multicopter rotors, wherein the movement sensor is positioned to rotate relative to the wing when the multicopter rotors rotate relative to the wing between the multicopter and fixed-wing configurations.