Aircraft-antenna controlling device, aircraft, aircraft-antenna selecting program, and aircraft-antenna controlling method

• US 10,205,502 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• Inventors: Kikuchi, Shota, Miyanishi, Ippei
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pervin, Nuzhat
• Application Number:
  US14/417,643
• Publication Number:
  US 20150229376A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,961 Days
• Field of Search: 342367, 342433, 342434, 342876
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/28 Adaptation for use in or on aircraft, missiles, satellites, or balloons
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0608 Antenna selection according to transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/088 using beam selection

Abstract

A control unit of an aircraft includes a computer that predicts the current position of a wingman aircraft based on a temporal change in wingman-aircraft position information indicating the position of the wingman aircraft; an antenna selector that selects, from among multiple antennas, an antenna with which the elongation φt with respect to the center axis of the antenna at the predicted current position of the wingman aircraft predicted by the computer falls within a coverage angle θ; and a beam controller that executes communication with the wingman aircraft via the antenna selected by the antenna selector. Thus, the control unit of the aircraft can select an optimal antenna for communication with the wingman aircraft from among the multiple antennas.

Claims

1. An aircraft-antenna controlling device for an aircraft having multiple antennas for communicating with a wingman aircraft in flight, the multiple antennas being provided at different points on a fuselage, the aircraft-antenna controlling device comprising:

a wingman-aircraft-position predicting part for predicting a predicted current position of the wingman aircraft based on a temporal change in position information indicating a position of the wingman aircraft in flight;

a selecting part for selecting, from among the multiple antennas, an antenna with which elongation with respect to a center axis of the respective antenna at the predicted current position of the wingman aircraft predicted by the wingman-aircraft-position predicting part falls within a coverage angle; and

a communication controlling means for executing communication with the wingman aircraft via the antenna selected by the selecting part,

wherein, in a case where the predicted current position of the wingman aircraft falls within a respective coverage angle of more than one antenna from among the multiple antennas, the antenna from among the more than one antenna is further selected based on a difference between a center axis of the respective coverage angle and the elongation of each of the more than one antenna.

2. An aircraft-antenna controlling device according to claim 1,

wherein the coverage angle of the selected antenna overlaps the coverage angle of an adjacent one of the remaining ones of the multiple antenna.

3. An aircraft-antenna controlling device according to claim 2, wherein the antenna is further selected from among:

the antenna from among the more than one antenna to have a greatest difference between a center axis and the elongation,

the antenna from among the more than one antenna to have a difference between the center axis and the elongation that is greater than or equal to a predetermined constant, and

the antennas from among the more than one antenna to have a difference between the center axis and the elongation that is greater as compared with a previous difference between the center axis and the elongation of a last communication.

4. An aircraft-antenna controlling device according to claim 3, wherein the selecting means further selects from among the antenna from among the more than one antenna to have a greatest difference between the center axis and the elongation, the antenna from among the more than one antenna to have a difference between the center axis and the elongation that is greater than or equal to the predetermined constant, and the antenna from among the more than one antenna to have a difference between the center axis and the elongation that is greater as compared with the previous different between the center axis and the elongation of the last communication, based on a greatest total value resulting from individually weighting each by predetermined values.

5. An antenna controlling method for an aircraft having multiple antennas for communicating with a wingman aircraft in flight, the multiple antennas being provided at different points on a fuselage, the aircraft-antenna controlling method comprising:

a first step of predicting a predicted current position of the wingman aircraft based on a temporal change in position information indicating a position of the wingman aircraft in flight;

a second step of selecting, from among the multiple antennas, a selected antenna with which an elongation with respect to a center axis of the respective antenna at the predicted current position of the wingman aircraft falls within a coverage angle of the respective antenna; and

a third step of executing communication with the wingman aircraft via the selected antenna.

6. A non-transient computer readable medium containing program instructions for causing a computer to controlling multiple antennas provided at different points on a fuselage of an aircraft, comprising:

predicting, a predicted current position of the wingman aircraft based on a temporal change in position information indicating a position of the wingman aircraft in flight;

selecting, from among the multiple antennas, a selected antenna with which an elongation with respect to a center axis of the respective antenna at the predicted current position of the wingman aircraft falls within a coverage angle of the respective antenna; and

executing communication with the wingman aircraft via the selected antenna.