A measuring device, method of measuring, and transport vessel including the measuring device measuring the ground effect region for the vessel in real time and controlling the transport vessel, e.g., a Wing In Ground Effect (WIG) vessel, to remain in ground effect based on those measurements. Distance measurement sensors are distributed about the bottom surface of the vessel and communicating sensor signals with a controller during flight. The controller determines the ground effect region for said WIG in real time from the sensor signals and determines WIG transit elevation.

An aircraft is disclosed including a ground manoeuvre control unit for automatically controlling ground manoeuvres. The aircraft has control mechanisms such as a rudder, nose wheel steering, spoilers, wheel brakes and the like for controlling motion of the aircraft. The control unit is configured to receive lateral input demands concerning lateral motion of the aircraft (e.g. heading control) and longitudinal input demands concerning longitudinal motion of the aircraft (e.g. deceleration). The control unit passes on the input demands as output demands to the relevant control mechanisms of the aircraft with, if so required, a modification which prioritises one of the lateral input demand and longitudinal input demand based on the risk of a lateral runway excursion and the risk of a longitudinal runway excursion.

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and computer readable media implemented in connection with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to navigate a UAV along a desired path. For example, systems disclosed herein identify an anticipatory flight path and identify a plurality of reference points on the flight path relative to a current position of the UAV. The systems described herein may further determine reference angles between a current trajectory of the UAV and the reference points to determine an updated trajectory that the UAV should take to stay close to the identified flight path. The systems described herein may further cause the UAV to accelerate in a lateral direction based on the updated trajectory. The features and functionality of systems disclosed herein enable the UAV to accurately follow a complex path having sharp turns with little or no advanced knowledge of the flight path prior to departure.

A system for managing flight parameters of aircraft is parametrized with overarching flight cost objectives. For a first flight, parameters of a cost function for the first flight are determined relative, respectively, to different cost factors. Flight parameters are optimized so as to minimize the cost function. Avionics of an aircraft carrying out the first flight are programmed with the flight parameters. On detecting an event in flight requiring the flight parameters to be revised, the parameters of the cost function are recalculated, as well as the flight parameters, and the avionics are reprogrammed accordingly. The method is repeated for at least a second flight, taking into account the effective contribution of the first flight to the overarching objectives, and so on. Thus, an airline can carry out overarching multi-objective optimization on its flights.

A method for guiding an autonomous aircraft, the aircraft includes an automatic pilot, a plurality of sensors and an imaging unit, the aircraft being configured to fly over a geographic zone comprising overflight prohibited zones, the guidance method can advantageously comprise a phase of real flight of the autonomous aircraft by using a given guidance law, comprising the following steps: determining a current state of the autonomous aircraft; determining an optimum action to be executed by using a neural network receiving the current state; determining a plurality of control instructions compatible with the guidance law based on the optimum action to be executed; transmitting to the automatic pilot the plurality of control instructions, which provides a new state of the autonomous aircraft.

A system of an aircraft includes a thrust reverser control configured to control deployment of one or more thrust reversers of the aircraft, a brake control configured to control operation of one or more brakes of the aircraft, and a controller. The controller is configured to detect a landing condition of the aircraft, determine one or more thrust reverser deployment and brake control parameters for one or more current conditions at a target location of the aircraft, and control the one or more thrust reversers and the one or more brakes upon landing at the target location based on the one or more thrust reverser deployment and brake control parameters. The controller can modify one or more control parameters of the aircraft based on detecting a change in the one or more current conditions at the target location or a fault condition of the aircraft.

Embodiments described herein may relate to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigating to a target in order to provide medical support. An illustrative method involves a UAV (a) determining an approximate target location associated with a target, (b) using a first navigation process to navigate the UAV to the approximate target location, where the first navigation process generates flight-control signals based on the approximate target location, (c) making a determination that the UAV is located at the approximate target location, and (d) in response to the determination that the UAV is located at the approximate target location, using a second navigation process to navigate the UAV to the target, wherein the second navigation process generates flight-control signals based on real-time localization of the target.

A method for monitoring an aircraft during takeoff is initiated when a first speed threshold is reached. During successive calculation cycles, the following steps are implemented: obtaining a current ground speed; calculating a time taken by a numerical aircraft model to increase its speed to the current ground speed; multiplying this time by the current ground speed and, by integration, deducing therefrom the distance theoretically travelled by the aircraft. Furthermore, the following steps are implemented when a second speed threshold is reached: estimating an acceleration degradation based on a difference between the distance actually travelled by the aircraft and the distance theoretically travelled by the aircraft; and generating a warning when the estimate of the acceleration degradation is greater than a degradation threshold.

A system and a method for operating an aircraft during a climb phase of flight include a control unit configured to receive data regarding one or both of a current flight or one or more previous flights of the aircraft from one or more sensors of the aircraft. The control unit is further configured to determine efficient climb phase parameters for the aircraft based on the data. The aircraft is operated during the climb phase of one or both of the current flight or one or more future flights according to the efficient climb phase parameters.

A machine and process for control of rotation of a vehicle about an axis of the vehicle is shown. A flight control system includes control laws that control the rotation of the vehicle around the axis of the vehicle. An estimate is derived for an inertia about the axis. The estimated inertia is derived from sensed quantities of material in a component of the vehicle. An inertia gain schedule and filter are added to enhance, using the estimated inertia, the accuracy of the control laws that control the rotation of the vehicle around the axis of the vehicle.