System and method for gyro enhanced vertical flight information

• US 6,961,643 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2005
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trutrak Flight Systems, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trutrak Flight Systems, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Younkin, James R., Bilbe, Charles R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANCHO, RONNIE M
• Application Number:
  US11/049,094
• Time in Patent Office: 272 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3- 7, 702/151, 702/150, 702/94, 702/153, 702/141, 702/142, 244/321, 244/171, 244/177, 244/194, 731/700.1, 731/78.R, 333/28, 333/20
• US Class Current: 701/7
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/00 Measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, persons, animals or other moving solid bodies, e.g. using odometers, using pedometers

Abstract

A system and associated method where a vertical flight dynamic sensor is stabilized using pitch rate gyro information combined with azimuth rate gyro information corrected by scaling the azimuth rate gyro information in accordance with feedback derived from the difference between the vertical flight dynamic sensor signal and the corrected vertical flight dynamic output. In one embodiment, the vertical flighy dynamic sensor may be a vertical speed sensor. In another embodiment, the vertical flight dynamic sensor may be a pitch attitude sensor derived from the difference between an inertial based acceleration signal and a velocity based acceleration signal. The velocity based acceleration signal may be based on airspeed or GPS velocity.

Claims

1. A method for generating a gyro enhanced vertical speed signal for control of an aircraft, said method comprising the steps of:

combining a vertical speed signal, a pitch rate gyro signal, and a correction signal to generate a combination signal;

filtering said combination signal to generate said gyro enhanced vertical speed signal;

wherein said correction signal is responsive to the absolute value of an azimuth rate gyro signal scaled in accordance with the difference between the vertical speed signal and the gyro enhanced vertical speed signal.

2. The method of claim 1, further including a forward velocity signal wherein said absolute value of an azimuth rate gyro signal is further scaled based on said forward velocity signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further including a forward velocity signal wherein said pitch rate gyro signal is scaled based on said forward velocity signal.

5. A system as in claim 1, further including a display;

wherein said display is responsive to said gyro enhanced vertical speed signal.

6. A system as in claim 1, wherein the azimuth rate gyro is inclined.

7. A system as in claim 1, further including a vertical speed command signal and an autopilot wherein the vertical speed command signal is summed with the vertical speed sensor signal and the gyro enhanced vertical speed sensor is used to command the autopilot.

8. A system as in claim 1, further including an altitude error signal and an autopilot;

wherein the altitude error signal is summed with the vertical speed sensor signal and the gyro enhanced vertical speed sensor is used to command the autopilot.

9. A system as in claim 1, wherein the vertical speed sensor includes an altimeter and a rate network.

10. A system as in claim 1, wherein the scaling is performed by a pulse width modulator.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the filter is a lag filter.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the scaling is over a range from zero to one.

4. A system for generating a gyro enhanced vertical speed signal, said system comprising:

a vertical speed sensor producing a vertical speed signal;

a pitch rate gyro producing a pitch rate signal;

an azimuth rate gyro producing an azimuth rate signal;

a filter coupled to the vertical speed sensor and the pitch rate gyro;

said filter producing said gyro enhanced vertical speed signal;

said filter further coupled to a correction signal;

said correction signal responsive to the absolute value of the azimuth rate signal scaled according to the difference between the vertical speed signal and the gyro enhanced vertical speed signal.

13. A method for generating a gyro enhanced vertical information signal for control of an aircraft, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a vertical information signal;

generating a first pitch attitude signal based on a pitch rate gyro signal;

generating an azimuth rate signal;

generating a correction signal based on the azimuth rate signal scaled based on the difference between the vertical information signal and the gyro enhanced vertical information signal;

said correction signal for correcting the pitch rate gyro signal;

generating a gyro enhanced vertical information signal;

wherein the gyro enhanced vertical information signal is responsive primarily to the vertical information signal in the long term and responsive primarily to the first pitch attitude signal in the short term.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the vertical information signal is a vertical speed signal.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the vertical information signal is a second pitch attitude signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the second pitch attitude signal is derived from an inertial accelerometer corrected for axial acceleration.