Flight interpreter for testing a captive unmanned aircraft system |
|||||||
申请号 | EP12178302.1 | 申请日 | 2012-07-27 | 公开(公告)号 | EP2555073B1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2017-03-08 |
申请人 | The Boeing Company; | 发明人 | Spinelli, Charles B.; | ||||
摘要 | |||||||
权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | Embodiments of the disclosure relate generally to the field of controlled flight for unmanned aircraft systems and more particularly to a system and method for the control of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the National Airspace via a Captive Carry Surrogate UAS mounted on an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) wherein the system passes control from linked commands through the Flight Control System (FCS) of the UAS to the OPV via a Flight Control Interpreter (FCI). UAS are becoming widespread in the aviation world, but no existing procedures have been created to allow them to fly in the NAS with all other types of aircraft. This is partly due to the different mission profiles of UAS, some invalidated operational concepts, and the current lack of modernization of the NAS. Such modernization is planned in approximately the next 10 years. As such, testing of UAS technologies and sensors is not easily accomplished and is expensive since it is very difficult to achieve permission to demonstrate new capabilities; such as participating in modern civil exercises over populated areas. Furthermore, the FAA imposes severe restrictions on flight operations of UAS within the NAS. Authorization for UAS flight operations may be granted by the FAA, but only on a case by case basis and only given an FAA approval for issuance of a Certificate of Authorization (COA) which must be applied for and granted for each individual flight operation. The issuance of a COA is typically very difficult to obtain, takes a long period of time and in many cases is denied altogether. These FAA restrictions, while clearly imposed in the interest of maintaining safe flight operations in the NAS, severely impede development, test, and training efforts for the rapidly evolving family of UAS aircraft. The currently accepted practice for UAS operations in the NAS is to request the COA and then conduct the limited flight allowable operation within the restrictions imposed. This approach adversely impacts development, testing, and training for UAS technologies by adding significantly to program cost and schedule. It is therefore desirable to provide capability to demonstrate safely, efficiently and at low cost the ability for UASs to operate in the NAS. Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies: "Pelican" discloses The Pelican, a highly-modifed Cessna 337, 02, Skymaster originally developed by the Office of Naval Research for low-altitude, long-endurance atmospheric and oceanographic sampling. Through an SBIR program between Zivko Aeronautics and GA, the air vehicle was configured to operate as a true Predator UAV surrogate for the U.S. Navy. Embodiments described herein provide a system for unmanned aircraft system (UAS) testing which incorporates a UAS flight control system providing input representing control parameters for a flight profile of the UAS to a flight control interpreter (FCI)and an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) carrying the UAS flight control system. The OPV has an OPV flight control system and the FCI which receives the input from the UAS flight control system representing control parameters for a flight profile of the UAS. The FCI provides status commands as an output to the OPV flight control system to replicate the flight profile. The OPV flight control system includes a pilot override for emergency, flight safety or other contingencies allowing an on board pilot to assume control of the OPV to which the UAS is attached. Advantageously, the OPV flight control system may be used to evaluate and help achieve NAS improvements such as: 4D trajectories, reduced air/ground communications, creating airspace sectors to better balance controller workload, establishing limited "dynamic resectorization", shared FAA/user flight plan and situational awareness information, and better dissemination of common weather information to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and user facilities. The UAS and OPV can be included in a UAS Captive Carry test system with at least a UAS fuselage having the UAS flight control system mounted on the OPV. The OPV having an OPV flight control system with a pilot override carries the UAS fuselage and a flight control interpreter (FCI) which receives control parameters from the UAS flight control system. The FCI provides status commands to the OPV flight control system to replicate a UAS flight profile which is then tracked by an OPV ground monitor. The embodiments described provide a method for testing of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in the national airspace (NAS) in which at least a UAS fuselage having a UAS flight control system is attached to an OPV having an OPV flight control system with a pilot override. The UAS flight control system is interconnected to an FCI which is interconnected to the OPV flight control system. A UAS flight profile is initiated and control parameters from the UAS flight control system are provided to the FCI. The control parameters are interpreted in the FCI. A determination is made if the profile is complete and, if not, status commands are output from the FCI to the OPV control system. Presence of a pilot override command is determined, and if one is not present, the OPV is then controlled based on the status commands. The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed can be achieved independently in various embodiments of the present invention or may be combined in yet other embodiments, further details of which can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.
The embodiments described herein provide a test environment that would be compliant with FAA rules for manned aircraft operating within the NAS. A UAS airframe, payload, and avionics are mounted on or in an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV). Since the OPV has a pilot on board the aircraft it is compliant with FAA requirements for flight within the NAS. During UAS testing, control of the OPV is driven by commands issued by a control law computer to mimic UAS flight characteristics. In this manner, the OPV is capable of emulating the kinematic flight profile of the UAS. If an anomaly were to occur during the test flight, control of the OPV would immediately transition to control by the safety pilot who would then operate the OPV aircraft manually under NAS flight rules. A flight interpreter functions to interpret flight commands to and from the UAS to the OPV. The OPV may be employed for testing of a UAS in planned NAS improvements including: 4D trajectories, reduced air/ground communications, creating airspace sectors to better balance controller workload, establishing limited "dynamic resectorization", shared FAA/user flight plan and situational awareness information, and better dissemination of common weather information to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and user facilities. As represented in The OPV 12 includes a flight control system 19 which controls the operation of the OPV including an autopilot system for conventional flight path control of the OPV. The OPV is selected or designed with a flight envelope that encompasses the flight envelope of the UAS for the ability to provide flight characteristics comparable to those of the autonomous UAS. A UAS to OPV flight control interpreter (FCI) 20 is connected for input from the UAS flight control system 16 with output to the OPV flight control system 19. Unless interrupted by the pilot override interface 52, the OPV will operate with a flight profile and flight kinematics identical to the UAS, allowing both control of the UAS and the mission profile to be evaluated. Returning to The UAS captive carry test bed employs the Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) to demonstrate operation of a UAS to the satisfaction of the FAA in terms of safety of flight, and integration with the latest NAS technologies such as 4D trajectories. In an example embodiment, the UAS fuselage is mounted to the OPV with sensors onboard and the wings and engine removed. In other embodiments the entire UAS or merely the sensor and control elements of the UAS may be mounted to the OPV. Commands are sent by the FCI to the OPV control law computer in the autopilot 36 to mimic UAS flight characteristics. Thus, the actual flight control of the OPV is totally transparent to operator at the common ground station 18. In case of emergency, flight safety issue or other contingency, a pilot on board the OPV is in communications with ATC and UAS operators and can take command of the OPV at anytime through the pilot override interface 52. As shown in Various configurations of air vehicles may be employed for the OPV in the UAS C2 test bed as shown in In other configurations, a conventional general aviation aircraft such as a Cessna SkyMaster 72 (Cessna model C337 or USAF O-2) shown in In operation the embodiments of the UAS C2 test bed are employed as shown by the flowchart in Various functions of the UAS can be tested and verified while being flown with the OPV. As a first example commands for turning and pitching the OPV can be tested. During its flights attached to the OPV, the UAS sends commands via the FCI to the OPV control law computer so it may turn, pitch and otherwise fly in a prescribed pattern. Input from either the common ground station or from the UAS's sensing package (i.e. data about attitude, vertical navigation, lateral navigation, turn rate, velocity, and engine operations) will allow the UAS to decide it must, for example, turn right. To turn right, it executes the following operation, as shown in Rerouting to conform to commands from a common ground station provides a second example. The UAS will occasionally need to respond to rerouting commands from an external operator (not the pilot in the OPV). When these commands are received, they are then processed through a similar flow as shown in As a third example, testing and taking data samples on the UAS may be accomplished during flight with the OPV. For flight certification, the UAS must perform and pass a number of safety and efficiency examinations. To execute some of these tests, it may require assistance from the OPV. Examples of this include takeoff and ascent capability assessment and fuel efficiency tracking. As shown in Other data may not require intervention from the OPV for the UAS to complete its tests ("NO" arrow in A system for unmanned aircraft system (UAS) testing comprising a UAS flight control system, an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) attached to the UAS flight control system, said OPV having an OPV flight control system, and a flight control interpreter (FCI) receiving input from the UAS flight control system representing control parameters for a flight profile of the UAS, said FCI providing status commands as an output to the OPV flight control system to replicate the flight profile, said OPV flight control system further including a pilot override. The system for UAS testing may include a UAS flight control system that is integrated in at least a UAS fuselage and further comprising UAS sensors. The system for UAS testing may include an OPV flight control system that includes an autopilot receiving the status commands output from the FCI. The system for UAS testing may also include a common ground station for control of the UAS flight control system. In addition, the system may include a common ground station receives data from the UAS sensors. The control parameters may be selected from the group consisting of attitude, vertical navigation, lateral navigation, turn rate, velocity and engine operations. The system for UAS testing may include status commands that are selected from the group consisting of attitude, vertical navigation, lateral navigation, turn rate, velocity, and engine operations. An unmanned aircraft system (UAS) Captive Carry test system may include a UAS fuselage having a UAS flight control system an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) having an OPV flight control system with a pilot override. The OPV may carry the UAS fuselage and a flight control interpreter (FCI) receiving control parameters from the UAS flight control system. The FCI may provide status commands to the OPV flight control system to replicate a UAS flight profile. The UAS Captive Carry test system may include an OPV ground monitor and can comprise a common ground station communicating with the UAS flight control system. The UAS captive carry test system may further comprise UAS sensors incorporated in the UAS fuselage, said sensors in communication with the common ground station. The OPV flight control system may include an autopilot receiving the status commands output from the FCI. The UAS captive carry test system may include control parameters selected from the group consisting of attitude, vertical navigation, lateral navigation, turn rate, velocity and engine operations. The status commands can be selected from the group consisting of attitude, vertical navigation, lateral navigation, turn rate, velocity, and engine operations. A method for testing of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in the national airspace (NAS) can include attaching at least a UAS fuselage having a UAS flight control system to an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) having an OPV flight control system with a pilot override, interconnecting the UAS flight control system to a flight control interpreter (FCI), interconnecting the FCI to the OPV flight control system, initiating a UAS flight profile, providing control parameters from the UAS flight control system to the FCI, interpreting the control parameters in the FCI, determining if the profile is complete and, if not, outputting status commands from the FCI to the OPV control system, determining if there is a pilot override; and controlling the OPV based on the status commands. The method may further comprise communicating with the UAS flight control system using a common ground station. The method may comprise monitoring UAS sensor systems with the common ground station. The method can include tracking an actual flight profile of the OPV with an OPV ground monitor. The method can involve asserting a pilot override and assuming control of the OPV. A method of controlling an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) in national airspace may comprise attaching an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to an OPV, receiving control parameters for a flight profile with a UAS flight control system; and, directing the control parameters to a flight control interpreter. The method can also include receiving status commands from the FCI in an OPV flight control system; replicating the UAS flight profile with the OPV. The method can involve asserting a pilot override and assuming control of the OPV if an emergency or contingency arises. |