FLIGHT CONTROL SUPPORT DEVICE

• US 20130060405A1
• Filed: 06/07/2010
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Ishiba, Masatsugu, Komatsuzaki, Kosuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,897,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0646 to follow the profile of undulating ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0056 in an emergency situation, e.g. hijacking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935

Abstract

Disclosed is a flight control support device which sets a flight restricted area W along a terrain, thereby achieving improvement in safety of a small aircraft A and sufficiently securing the degree of freedom of flight course selection of a pilot. The flight control support device includes a terrain information acquirer, an aircraft information acquirer, a flight restricted area setter which sets the flight restricted area W along the terrain on the basis of the terrain information acquired by the terrain information acquirer and the aircraft information acquired by the aircraft information acquirer, and a flight control supporter which supports flight control of a flying object on the basis of the flight restricted area set by the flight restricted area setter.

Claims

1. A flight control support device which supports flight control of a flying object, the flight control support device comprising:

a terrain information acquisition unit which acquires terrain information;

an aircraft information acquisition unit which acquires aircraft information of the flying object;

a flight restricted area setting unit which sets a flight restricted area along a terrain on the basis of the terrain information acquired by the terrain information acquisition unit and the aircraft information acquired by the aircraft information acquisition unit; and

a flight control support unit which supports flight control of the flying object on the basis of the flight restricted area set by the flight restricted area setting unit.

2. The flight control support device according to claim 1,

wherein the terrain information includes emergency landing site information relating to a emergency landing site,

the aircraft information includes glide ratio information of the flying object,

the flight control support device further comprises:

a gliding surface calculation unit which calculates a gliding surface for the emergency landing site on the basis of the emergency landing site information and the glide ratio information, and

the flight restricted area setting unit sets the flight restricted area on the basis of the gliding surface calculated by the gliding surface calculation unit.

3. The flight control support device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a propulsion device failure determination unit which determines failure of a propulsion device of the flying object;

a positional information acquisition unit which acquires positional information of the flying object; and

a glidable range calculation unit which calculates a glidable range of the flying object on the basis of the positional information and the glide ratio information of the flying object when the propulsion device failure determination unit determines that the propulsion device fails,

wherein, when the glidable range calculation unit calculates the glidable range, the flight restricted area setting unit sets the flight restricted area on the basis of the glidable range, the positional information of the flying object, and the emergency landing site information so as to lead the flying object to the emergency landing site within the glidable range.

4. The flight control support device according to claim 1,

wherein the aircraft information includes maximum climbing rate information of the flying object, and

the flight restricted area setting unit sets the flight restricted area on the basis of the maximum climbing rate information.

5. The flight control support device according to claim 1,

wherein the terrain information includes airport position information relating to the position of an airport,

the aircraft information includes residual flight range information of the flying object,

the flight control support device further comprises:

a positional information acquisition unit which acquires positional information of the flying object; and

a flight limiting surface calculation unit which calculates a flight limiting surface for the airport on the basis of the positional information of the flying object acquired by the positional information acquisition unit, the airport position information, and the residual flight range information, and

the flight restricted area setting unit sets the flight restricted area on the basis of the flight limiting surface calculated by the flight limiting surface calculation unit.

6. The flight control support device according to claim 1,

wherein, when the flying object enters the flight restricted area, the flight control support unit performs flight control for returning the flying object outside the flight restricted area.