Unmanned air vehicle, integrated weapon platform, avionics system and control method

• US 20070023582A1
• Filed: 07/01/2005
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Steele, Daniel, Chovan, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 7,542,828 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 244/190
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 39/024 of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 7/00 Arrangements of military equipment, e.g. armaments, armament accessories, or military shielding, in aircraft; Adaptations of armament mountings for aircraft dropping bombs or the like B64D1/00; armaments or mountings therefor per se F41
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 10/25 Fixed-wing aircraft VTOL aircraft B64U10/20
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 20/00 Constructional aspects of UAVs of lift-producing means B64U30/00
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/15 for conventional or electronic warfare
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2101/30 for imaging, photography or videography
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 2201/10 autonomous, i.e. by navigating independently from ground or air stations, e.g. by using inertial navigation systems [INS]
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 30/10 Wings
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/11 using internal combustion piston engines
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/12 using turbine engines, e.g. turbojets or turbofans
• CPC Class Codes: B64U 50/13 using external fans or propellers

Abstract

A small, reusable interceptor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), an avionics control system for the UAV, a design method for the UAV and a method for controlling the UAV, for interdiction of small scale air, water and ground threats. The UAV includes a high performance airframe with integrated weapon and avionics platforms. Design of the UAV first involves the selection of a suitable weapon, then the design of the interceptor airframe to achieve weapon aiming via airframe maneuvering. The UAV utilizes an avionics control system that is vehicle-centric and, as such, provides for a high degree of autonomous control of the UAV. A situational awareness processor has access to a suite of disparate sensors that provide data for intelligently (autonomously) carrying out various mission scenarios. A flight control processor operationally integrated with the situational awareness processor includes a pilot controller and an autopilot controller for flying and maneuvering the UAV.

Claims

1. A method for designing a small interceptor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), comprising:

selecting a suitable weapon having an aiming axis; and

designing an airframe of the UAV around the weapon, wherein the airframe has a flight vector axis that is parallel to the aiming axis, such that weapon aiming is performed by maneuvering the UAV in flight.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an aerodynamically symmetrical airframe design.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a vehicle-centric avionics platform to further provide substantially autonomous flight control of the UAV.

4. A small interceptor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), comprising:

an airframe including a fuselage having a longitudinal-rotational-flight vector axis and a known center of gravity location along the axis;

a firewall region located forwardly adjacent the center of gravity location;

a weapon platform integrated with the airframe;

an avionics system disposed in a forward section of the airframe;

a plurality of canards disposed around the forward section of the airframe;

a primary wing structure attached to a rearward section of the airframe; and

a propulsion system mounted in an aft end of the airframe.

5. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the wing structure is a non-dihedral delta wing structure.

6. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the airframe utilizes a box beam design structure that structurally links a plurality of primary stress and mass components of the UAV including the fuselage, the propulsion system, the wing structure, the weapon platform and a fuel supply system.

7. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the plurality of canards have a horizontal and a vertical symmetry about the airframe.

8. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the weapon platform includes an automatic repeating shotgun having a rear firing mechanism end and front discharge end located along a longitudinal aiming axis of the weapon, wherein said aiming axis of the shotgun is substantially parallel to and immediately adjacent said flight vector axis of the airframe.

9. The UAV of claim 8, wherein the shotgun is anchored to the firewall region of the airframe by a weapon shock mount.

10. The UAV of claim 8, wherein the shotgun has a barrel that extends along a length of the airframe such that the front discharge end of the shotgun is adjacent a nose region of the airframe.

11. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the propulsion system comprises an internal combustion engine including a propeller.

12. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the UAV has an aerodynamically symmetric structure.

13. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the avionics system comprises a situational awareness processor including a data management system and a vehicle-centric database, and a flight control processor in mutual operational connection with the situational awareness processor.

14. The UAV of claim 4, wherein the vehicle-centric database is attitude invariant and has an organizational data structure characterized by at least one of spatially evolutional sensor information and temporally evolutional sensor information.

15. The UAV of claim 13, wherein the organizational data structure is in the form of a situational sphere.

16. The control system of claim 13, wherein the control system is operationally integrated with a sensor suite comprising a plurality of sensors adapted for searching for a target, detecting a target, identifying a target, tracking a target and targeting a target.

17. The control system of claim 16, wherein the plurality of sensors include an electronic support measures (ESM) sensor, a short-wave infra-red sensor (SWIR) and a long-wave infra-red (LWIR) sensor.

18. An avionic control system for an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), comprising:

a situational awareness processor including a data management system and a vehicle-centric database, wherein said situational awareness processor is operationally integrated to a multiple-sensor platform capable of providing fused sensor data; and

a flight control processor in mutual operational connection with the situational awareness processor, wherein said flight control processor is operationally integrated to a telemetry system, a weapon controller, a flight control system and a position data input system.

19. The control system of claim 18, wherein the database is a four-dimensional spherically organized database.

20. The control system of claim 19, wherein the database is characterized by a UAV reference point at a center of the sphere, a zenith, a nadir and an equatorial plane having a coordinate axis, further wherein a radius vector of the sphere represents at least one of a temporally evolutional and a spatially evolutional placement of sensor data.

21. The control system of claim 20, wherein a volumetric slice of the sphere having an apex at the reference point and a base constituting a sphere surface portion represents an angularly invariant overlay of sensor data from a plurality of sensors operationally associated with the control system.

22. The control system of claim 19, wherein the spherically organized database is further characterized by at least one independent window formed as a volumetric slice of the data base, the window providing a view of operational data supplied by the sensor platform.

23. The control system of claim 22, further comprising a respective data processor associated with each of a plurality of the at least one independent windows, wherein the plurality of processors are parallel processors.

24. The control system of claim 22, wherein the at least one independent window provides a data base view of at least one of a target tracking function and a target seeking function.

25. The control system of claim 18, wherein the plurality of sensors include an electronic support measures (ESM) sensor, a short-wave infra-red sensor (SWIR) and a long-wave infra-red (LWIR) sensor.

26. The control system of claim 18, wherein the flight control processor has a set of configurable operational modes with respect to a mission scenario that can be set during at least one of prior to a mission execution and during a mission execution.

27. The control system of claim 26, wherein the selected operational mode determines a degree of autonomy of a controlled UAV as a function of the mission scenario or a selected segment of the mission scenario.

28. The control system of claim 26, wherein the operational mode is automatically configurable.

29. The control system of claim 28, wherein the operational mode is automatically configurable in response to a prospective countering-capability of a target.

30. The control system of claim 18, wherein the flight control processor includes a pilot controller and an autopilot controller that is operationally integrated with the pilot controller.

31. The control system of claim 30, wherein the pilot controller has an operational saccade modality and a fixation modality.

32. The control system of claim 31, wherein the saccade modality is attitude invariant.

33. The control system of claim 30, wherein the pilot controller is operationally interfaced to a command and control telemetry system.

34. The control system of claim 30, wherein the autopilot controller is operationally interfaced to the data management system.

35. A method for providing enhanced control of an autonomously controlled vehicle, comprising:

providing a spherically organized situational awareness data base, wherein at least one independent window is formed as a volumetric slice thereof, the window providing a view of operational data supplied by a sensor platform operationally integrated with the data base; and

providing a pilot controller operationally integrated with the spherically organized data base, wherein at least one pilot modality is processed and supplied as a control signal for the vehicle.

36. The method of claim 35, comprising providing each at least one independent window with an independent data processing capability, wherein the processing capability of a plurality of the windows is carried out as a parallel processing function.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the at least one pilot modality is at least one of a saccade modality and a fixation modality.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein a plurality of the at least one pilot modality are integrated to provide enhanced control of the vehicle.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the at least one independent window facilitates at least one of a target seeking function and a target tracking function.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the at least one the target seeking function and the target tracking function includes an obstacle avoidance application.

41. The method of claim 35, wherein the at least one independent window is steered by the pilot controller.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the steering is performed in consideration of an interceptor mission function.

43. The method of claim 35, comprising providing the operational data directly as angular sensor data.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the sensor platform comprises a plurality of sensors, wherein each one sensor of the plurality provides its respective operational data as a limited instantaneous field of view represented as a volumetric slice of the spherically organized data base.

45. The method of claim 35, wherein at least some of the operational data comprises range information, further comprising representing said range information as a radial placement within the spherically organized data base.

46. A method for controlling an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), comprising:

providing an integrated plurality of disparate sensors on the UAV, wherein said sensors provide at least a target searching capability, a target tracking capability and a target targeting capability;

providing a situational awareness processor for the UAV operationally interfaced to the plurality of sensors;

providing a flight control processor for the UAV including an autopilot controller, operationally interfaced to the situational awareness processor, to establish an autonomous coupling between the sensors and the auto-pilot; and

providing a pilot-controller having operational control over the autopilot controller.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein establishing an autonomous coupling between the sensors and the autopilot further comprises providing a spherically organized data base in the situational awareness processor.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the spherically organized data base is UAV platform attitude-invariant.

49. The method of claim 48, comprising providing automatically-aged integrated sensor data and stored look-up data.

50. The method of claim 49, comprising normalizing the data as a function of at least one of platform attitude, platform course, platform-to-target range, and age of the data.

51. The method of claim 46, comprising providing the pilot controller with a saccade modality and a fixation modality.

52. The method of claim 47, wherein establishing an autonomous coupling between the sensors and the autopilot comprises providing a remotely controllable level of autonomous coupling.