System of play platform for multi-mission application spanning any one or combination of domains or environments

• US 10,618,648 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2019
• Issued: 04/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airgility, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Airgility, Inc.
• Inventors: Valente, Evandro Gurgel do Amaral, Valente, Eduardo Gurgel do Amaral, Miller, Tanner Ray, Jensen, Bryan Phillip
• Primary Examiner(s): Oh, Harry Y
• Application Number:
  US16/520,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20200023964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 266 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 29/0033 the propellers being tiltable relative to the fuselage
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/14 with four distinct rotor axes, e.g. quadcopters
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/00 UAVs specially adapted for particular uses or applications
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/00 Means for producing lift; Empennages; Arrangements thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/297 Tilting rotors
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0858 specially adapted for vertical take-off of aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/102 specially adapted for vertical take-off of aircraft

Abstract

A vehicle is described having an aerodynamically contoured lifting body comprising a plurality of cooperating body modules, wherein at least two of the modules are displaceably secured to each other. The modules include a trust vectoring module operatively coupled to a propulsive mechanism. The thrust vectoring module is dynamically controlled to affect positioning and actuation of the propulsive mechanism to attain a desired positioning of the vehicle and at least one of a plurality of modes of operation thereof. The thrust vectoring module includes a nacelle module carrying the propulsive mechanism thereon and rotatably displaceable about one or more axes extending from the lifting body. The propulsive mechanism is positioned externally, internally, or in combinations thereof of the nacelle module and is tiltably displaceable about one or more axes of the nacelle module.

Claims

1. A system-of-play vehicle platform comprising:

a flight controller;

an aerodynamic contoured lifting body; and

a plurality of thrust vectoring modules coupled to the lifting body, wherein

each of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules comprises a propulsive device controlled by the flight controller and configured to perform thrust vectoring of the lifting body,

each of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules, controlled by the flight controller, is configured to tilt in at least one axis, and

during a launch operation, at least one of the thrust vectoring modules, controlled by the flight controller, is configured to launch said vehicle platform from an upward or downward facing launch position, and

during a landing operation, at least one of the thrust vectoring modules, controlled by the controller, is configured to return said vehicle platform following the launch to a position inverted from the launch position.

2. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

at least one of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules is dynamically controlled by the flight controller to manipulate said vehicle platform'"'"'s angle of attack along an arcuate path during a translational flight operation, and gradually flip said vehicle platform during a hovering flight operation or translational flight operation.

3. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

each of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules comprises a locomotive enabling device, and

the locomotive enabling device is configured to interact with a landing surface.

4. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

modes of operation affected by at least one of the thrust vectoring modules include at least one of the following:

short take-off, short landing, horizontally oriented body vertical take-off, horizontally oriented body vertical landing, horizontally oriented body up-side-down vertical take-off, horizontally oriented body up-side-down vertical landing, externally assisted take-off, externally assisted landing, vertically oriented body with nose up vertical take-off, vertically oriented body with nose down vertical take-off, vertically oriented body with nose up vertical landing, vertically oriented body with nose down vertical landing, and

wherein the propulsive device comprises a first propulsive device and a second propulsive device each controlled by the flight controller to operate in a counter rotation regime relative to each other, thus generating airflows over the lifting body having opposing vorticity flow fields.

5. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

at least one of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules is configured to steer said vehicle platform during non-airborne operations and to tilt said vehicle platform during non-airborne operations, thereby manipulating ride height of said vehicle platform with reference to a landing surface.

6. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1,

wherein at least one of the thrust vectoring modules is configured to control roll, pitch, and yaw moments of said vehicle platform, and

wherein at least one of the thrust vectoring modules is configured to control one dimension, two dimension, or three dimension translation of said vehicle platform.

7. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1,

wherein the at least one thrust vectoring module comprises a compartment defined therein, the compartment configured to house a component, and

wherein the component is one or more components selected from a group consisting of avionics system, sensors system, weapon system, navigation and guidance system, communication system, power system, energy storage unit, payload system, payload, propulsion system, fuel cell, landing gear system, docking system, tether system, flight assist system, collision avoidance system, deceleration system, flight termination system, ballast system, buoyancy system, mechanical systems, and electronics, and wherein at least one breakaway hardware carrier is configured to provide quick installation, and component protection via a designed structural failure mode.

8. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

the vehicle body comprises an interchangeable front body section and rear body section,

at least one of the interchangeable front body section and rear body section is configured to house components selected from a group consisting of avionics system, sensors system, weapon system, navigation and guidance system, communication system, power system, energy storage unit, payload system, payload, propulsion system, fuel cell, landing gear system, docking system, tether system, flight assist system, collision avoidance system, deceleration system, flight termination system, ballast system, buoyancy system, mechanical systems, and electronics, and wherein at least one breakaway hardware carrier is configured to provide quick installation, and component protection via a designed structural failure mode, and

the interchangeable front body section and rear body section are both removable and modular sections.

9. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein

at least one of the thrust vectoring modules is dynamically controlled by the flight controller to manipulate said vehicle platform'"'"'s angle of attack about an internal point of rotation during hovering flight operation.

10. The system-of-play vehicle platform of claim 1, wherein the vehicle body, the thrust vectoring modules, and the propulsive devices are configured to have modular or interchangeable relationship with each other.

11. A method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform, said method comprising:

controlling thrust vectoring of an aerodynamic contoured lifting body with a plurality of propulsive devices;

coupling a plurality of thrust vectoring modules to the lifting body; and

manipulating the lifting body to tilt along one or more axes by controlling the plurality of thrust vectoring modules, wherein

each of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules comprises a propulsive device controlled by a flight controller and configured to perform thrust vectoring of the lifting body,

during a launch operation, controlling at least one of the thrust vectoring modules to launch said vehicle platform from an upward or downward facing launch position, and

during a landing operation, controlling at least one of the thrust vectoring modules to return said vehicle platform following the launch to a position inverted from the launch position.

12. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11,

wherein said vehicle platform is configured to perform three dimensional operations in air or in a fluid, and

said vehicle platform is further configured to operate in hover flight with or without functionality to preset a desired body angle of attack, or vertical flight with or without functionality of dynamically manipulating body angle of attack, or hover flight with or without functionality of dynamically manipulating body angle of attack, or on-station airborne flight with or without operating in a combined arc path with body rotation, or hovering flight over a set location with or without functionality of manipulating body angles, or forward flight with and without power consumption preservation via aerodynamic lift generation, or short take-off, or short landing, or vertical take-off, or in combinations thereof.

13. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, wherein

the landing position comprises a vertical body section posture approximately vertical in orientation with respect to a landing surface, or

wherein the landing position comprises a horizontal body section posture approximately parallel in orientation with respect to the landing surface.

14. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, further comprising:

coupling a first subset or all of the thrust vectoring modules configured to interchangeably swap with a second subset or full set of modular propulsive cooperating modules suitable for non-aerial multi-orientational operability or multi-terrain operability.

15. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, further comprising:

coupling a first subset or all of the plurality of thrust vectoring modules further configured to expand airborne operability with other environments such as in terrestrial, subterraneous, marine, and submersed domains.

16. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, further comprising:

attaching a CPU comprising an on-board higher-level algorithm to said vehicle platform, wherein

the on-board higher-level algorithm is configured to assist in partial or full autonomous operation of said vehicle platform in-flight, in a fluid medium, on a fluid medium, or on terrain.

17. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, further comprising:

configuring the at least one thrust vectoring module and body section with at least one component internally or externally mounted, and

wherein the at least one component is selected from the group consisting of;

people, payload, weaponization, non-kinetic attack systems, counter measures system, communication system, guidance and navigation system, flight sensors, perception sensors, higher level computing suite with or without artificial intelligence, mission-specific hardware, propulsion system, energy storage system, ballast system, sensing system, suspension system, braking system, dampening system, airbag, parachute, deceleration apparatus, drive apparatus, steering apparatus, vibration apparatus, landing gear apparatus, charging apparatus, discharging apparatus, electromagnet device, flight assisting device, locomotion assisting device, multi-terrain device, maneuvering assisting device, docking apparatus with or without electrical connectivity to a respective docking base, anchoring device, gripping device, grappling device, clawing device, floating device, retrieving device, and capturing device.

18. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, further comprising:

coupling a higher-level computing system to a flightworthiness system of said vehicle platform wherein a core computational capacity and a high-level computing regime work collaboratively on-board of said vehicle platform.

19. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the thrust vectoring modules is dynamically controlled to manipulate said vehicle platform'"'"'s angle of attack about an internal point of rotation during hovering flight operation.

20. The method of operating a system-of-play vehicle platform according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the thrust vectoring modules is dynamically controlled to manipulate said vehicle platform'"'"'s angle of attack along an arcuate path during a translational flight operation, and gradually flip said vehicle platform during a hovering flight operation or translational flight operation.