A system determines a dynamic collision awareness envelope for a vehicle. The system includes at least one vehicle motion sensor, an operator Line-Of-Sight detector and a processor. The vehicle motion sensor periodically provides measurements relating to the motion of the vehicle in a reference coordinate system. The operator Line-Of-Sight detector periodically provides information relating to the direction of the Line-Of-Sight of an operator of the vehicle, in a vehicle coordinate system. The processor is coupled with the at least one vehicle motion sensor, and with the operator Line-Of-Sight detector. The processor determines an operator vector from the direction of the Line-Of-Sight of the operator. The processor further determines an operational vector at least from the motion of the vehicle. The processor periodically determines a collision awareness envelope respective of each of the operational vectors, from the operator vector and the respective operational vector.

A signal transmitting device is provided for communicating with an aircraft in the vicinity of a landing area. The signal transmitting device configured to receive a signal from the aircraft and further configured to transmit a return signal to the aircraft automatically upon receipt of the signal. The return signal comprising information regarding the landing area.

FIG. 1 to be published

An aircraft includes an airframe with a thrust array attached thereto. The thrust array includes a plurality of propulsion assemblies that are independently controlled by a flight control system. A landing gear assembly is coupled to the airframe and includes a plurality of landing feet. An altitude sensor array includes a plurality of altitude sensors each of which is disposed within one of the landing feet such that when the aircraft is in the VTOL orientation, the altitude sensor array is configured to obtain multifocal altitude data relative to a landing surface. The flight control system is configured to generate a three-dimensional terrain map of the surface based upon the multifocal altitude data.

Methods and systems are provided for guiding or otherwise assisting energy management of an aircraft radar vectoring en route to a runway. A method involves dynamically determining an updated predicted lateral trajectory for the radar vectoring when the current aircraft status fails to satisfy a trajectory execution criterion for a previously-predicted lateral trajectory by iteratively adjusting a runway interception point defining a segment aligned with the runway until arriving at the updated predicted lateral trajectory for which a stabilization criterion for the runway can be satisfied. The method determines a target value for an energy state parameter of the aircraft at a current location on the updated predicted lateral trajectory and provides indication of a recommended action to reduce a difference between a current value for the energy state parameter and the target value.

Disclosed are methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable medium for landing a vehicle. For instance, the method may include: before a descent transition point, receiving from a service a landing zone confirmation including landing zone location information and an indication that a landing zone is clear; determining a landing flight path based on the landing zone location information; and upon the vehicle starting a descent to the landing zone using the landing flight path: receiving landing zone data from at least one of a radar system, a camera system, an altitude and heading reference system (AHRS), and a GPS system; performing an analysis based on the landing zone data to determine whether an unsafe condition exists; and based on the analysis, computing flight controls for the vehicle to continue the descent or modify the descent.

A co-prime coded DDM MIMO radar system, apparatus, architecture, and method are provided with a reference signal generator (112) that produces a transmit reference signal; a plurality of DDM transmit modules (11) that produce, condition, and transmit a plurality of transmit signals over which each have a different co-prime encoded progressive phase offset from the transmit reference signal; a receiver module (12) that receives a target return signal reflected from the plurality of transmit signals by a target and generates a digital signal from the target return signal; and a radar control processing unit (20) configured to detect Doppler spectrum peaks in the digital signal, where the radar control processing unit comprises a Doppler disambiguation module (25) that is configured with a CPC decoder to associate each detected Doppler spectrum peak with a corresponding DDM transmit module, thereby generating a plurality of transmitter-associated Doppler spectrum peak detections.

Autoland systems and processes for landing an aircraft without pilot intervention are described. In implementations, the autoland system includes a memory operable to store one or more modules and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The processor is operable to execute the one or more modules to identify a plurality of potential destinations for an aircraft; calculate a merit for each potential destination identified; select a destination based upon the merit; and create a route from a current position of the aircraft to an approach fix associated with the destination that accounts for the terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s). The processor can also cause the aircraft to traverse the route, determine a final approach segment associated with the route; identify terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s) associated with the final approach segment; and determine an adjusted final approach segment accounting for the terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s).

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for sending a flight plan for execution by a drone, where the flight plan is adapted to a flight controller of the drone. Receiving flight data from the drone while the drone is executing the flight plan. Determining a modification to the flight plan based on the flight data received from the drone. Sending the modification to the flight plan to the drone while the drone is executing the flight plan, such that the drone executes the flight plan as modified by the modification.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control method includes a takeoff process, a following process and a landing process, wherein the takeoff process includes the following steps: unlocking the UAV, and detecting the current horizontal position of the UAV in the horizontal direction and the current altitude of the UAV in the vertical direction; determining whether the current horizontal position and the current altitude meet takeoff criteria, and controlling the UAV to bounce off and enter into a takeoff state if the determination result is positive. The system provided by the present disclosure employs the above-mentioned method to control a UAV. The method and system provided by the present disclosure meet three functional requirements for a UAV on a moving base platform, namely, stable takeoff, following process and accurate landing, thus decrease the difficulties in the use of a UAV on a moving platform.

The invention relates to a MIMO imaging radar system. The system comprises transmission channels (Ve1, VeM), reception channels (Vr1, VrN), and co-located radiating elements (ER.sub.e1, ER.sub.eM, ER.sub.r1, ER.sub.rN) forming a two-dimensional antenna array. Each radiating element (ER.sub.e1, ER.sub.eM, ER.sub.r1, ER.sub.rN) has a predefined instantaneous field of coverage. Each radiating element is formed by a plurality of p radiating sub-elements (SeElt1, SsEltp) distributed in at least one of the two dimensions of the antenna array. The radar comprises a plurality of electronic steering modules (MD.sub.e1, . . . , MD.sub.rN). Each electronic steering module is connected to one radiating element. Each steering module is configured to apply a steering command (Cmd) between all the radiating sub-elements (SeElt1, SsEltp) of a given radiating element. The steering command (Cmd) is identical from one radiating element to the next, so as to move the field of coverage of each radiating element in the same direction.