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Robotic or remotely controlled flying platform
| Details |
Inventors: Moller, Paul S.;
Assignee: Moller International, Inc. (Davis, CA)
Primary Examiner: Barefoot; Galen
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Rosenblum, Parish & Bacigalupi
A flying platform, propelled by at least one ducted fan causing a vertically downwardly directed airstream in and through a cylindrical duct. A vane system in the duct has two mutually perpendicular pairs of diametrically opposite first vanes, each extending in from the duct rim toward the center of the duct. Each pair of first vanes provides a pair of generally vertical walls parallel to a diametral line across the duct, and they define duct passages between the pairs of vanes and define quadrants between adjacent pairs. Each first vane has an upper, fixed, rigid portion and a variable camber flap depending therefrom. A first servomotor with linkages vary the camber of each pair of flaps, so that the camber of the flaps of each pair is at all times the same amount but in opposite directions. Preferably, there are also four second vanes, one bisecting each quadrant, and a symmetric pair of spoilers is mounted on each second vane. Each pair of spoilers is independently movable, as a pair continuously between a position substantially blocking airflow through the outer portion of said quadrant and a position permitting substantially full airflow therethrough. A second servomotor with linkages symmetrically varies the position of its spoilers. There may be a radio receiver responsive to remote control signals for actuating each servomotor and its linkages. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention, whether utilizing a single-engine ducted fan or utilizing a plurality of such ducted fans, provides pitch-and-roll control seperate from translational control.
The invention employs vanes and spoilers, but in a different way.
The spoiler system is automatically driven by an on-board inertial reference system, and the spoilers are deployed only for the purpose of keeping the vehicle lift axis parallel to or coincident with the gravitational axis.
The moment of inertia about the pitch-and-roll axis and the response time of the spoilers are both minimized, so that only very low forces are required from the spoilers.
The result is that there is little loss of lift; hence, there is little coupling between the pitch-and-roll control and the heave or vertical movement.
The remote pilot can trim to level the vehicle, but trimming is not used for controlling maneuvers about the pitch-and-roll axis.
All of the spoilers in this invention are paired in each quadrant.
This insures that no torque or force is generated which might rotate the vehicle about the vertical or yaw axis when the spoilers are employed.
The pivot axis of each spoiler vane is chosen to coincide with the position where the torque on the spoiler is minimized as a function of its angular position.
This positioning reduces the amount of torque required to deploy the pair of spoilers and hence reduces the size of the servomotors required.
Most of the spoiler surface is concentrated near the maximum duct diameter, in order to maximize the resulting control moment.
Preferably, the spoilers are made of extremely light material in order to minimize their inertia and to obtain rapid spoiler response with minimum servo-motor power.
Translational control is obtained by use of a different type of vane, a flexible vane instead of a pivoted rigid vane.
In a deflection vane system, it is important to recognize that a rigid vane generates two major problems when used to deflect a slip stream: (1) The forces generated by swinging a rigid vane are highly nonlinear relative to the changing angle of the vane, and particularly when the aircraft is near the stall condition
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