Apparatus and method for navigation of an aircraft
First Claim
1. An apparatus for navigation of an aircraft, the apparatus comprising:
- a primary navigation system having a global positioning system capable of providing signals indicative of a position of the aircraft and a plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft, said plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors comprising a micro-electromechanical rate sensor and a micro-electromechanical accelerometer; and
a secondary navigation system having a laser gyroscope system capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft and producing navigation signals utilized in the event the primary navigation system malfunctions.
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Abstract
In accordance with this invention, an apparatus and method for aircraft navigation are provided that utilize a blended architecture consisting of a global positioning system (GPS) and micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS) for the primary navigation system and a laser gyroscope system for the secondary navigation system. The blended architecture of the present invention provides a navigation system that is at least as accurate, redundant and fault-tolerant as conventional navigation systems. In addition, the navigation system components may be distributed throughout the aircraft and may share computing resources with other avionics systems to process signals and provide data to the avionics systems. Overall, the navigation system of the present invention is significantly less expensive and easier to maintain, but equally or more precise and redundant, relative to conventional navigation systems.
59 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for navigation of an aircraft, the apparatus comprising:
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a primary navigation system having a global positioning system capable of providing signals indicative of a position of the aircraft and a plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft, said plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors comprising a micro-electromechanical rate sensor and a micro-electromechanical accelerometer; and
a secondary navigation system having a laser gyroscope system capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft and producing navigation signals utilized in the event the primary navigation system malfunctions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for navigating an aircraft, the method comprising:
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providing a primary navigation system having a global positioning system and a plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors;
providing a secondary navigation system having a laser gyroscope system;
providing signals from the global positioning system indicative of a position of the aircraft;
providing signals from the micro-electromechanical sensors indicative of inertial motion of the aircraft;
navigating the aircraft based upon the signals provided by the global positioning system and the micro-electromechanical sensors; and
navigating the aircraft based upon signals from the laser gyroscope system indicative of the inertial motion of the aircraft in the event the primary navigation system malfunctions. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus for navigation of an aircraft, the apparatus comprising:
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a primary navigation system having a global positioning system capable of providing signals indicative of a position of the aircraft and a plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft, said plurality of micro-electromechanical sensors comprising a plurality of micro-electromechanical rate sensors and a plurality of micro-electromechanical accelerometers distributed throughout the aircraft in a plurality of clusters of three rate sensors and three accelerometers; and
a secondary navigation system having no more than three ring laser gyroscopes capable of performing inertial referencing of the aircraft and producing navigation signals utilized in the event the primary navigation system malfunctions. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification