The Boeing Company

Darin William Brekke

Harris O Hinnant, Jr

Richard Donovan Jones

Dan John Clingman

David J Black, Jr

Teresa Anne Claggett

Mark A Castelluccio

David J Black

Matt R Dickerson

Robert Stewart McBride

Methods and apparatus to autonomously navigate a vehicle by selecting sensors from which to obtain measurements for navigation are disclosed. An example method to navigate a vehicle includes determining environmental data associated with an area in which the vehicle is to navigate; based on the environmental data, automatically ranking a plurality of sensors that are available to the vehicle by respective costs of using the sensors to generate a navigation solution; automatically determining a subset of the sensors from which to obtain measurements based on the ranking and based on comparisons of a) first importance values of the sensors for navigating the vehicle with b) second importance values of the sensors for performing a non-navigation task; obtaining measurements from the subset of the sensors; calculating a navigation command to navigate the vehicle; and executing a first navigation action to implement the navigation command.

Methods and apparatus to autonomously navigate a vehicle by selecting sensors from which to obtain measurements for navigation

Systems and methods to determine navigation states of a platform are disclosed. An example system includes a first processing node to determine a first aeroelastic navigation state of a platform at a first structural location of the platform with respect to a first aeroelasticity reference, a second processing node to determine a second aeroelastic navigation state of the platform at a second structural location of the platform with respect to the first aeroelasticity reference or a second aeroelasticity reference, and a storage device to store a platform navigation state based on at least one of the first or second aeroelastic navigation states.

Systems and methods to determine navigation states of a platform

A method and apparatus for identifying a position of a receiver. A number of first radio frequency signals including navigation information at the receiver is received. The number of first radio frequency signals is sent from a number of platforms configured to receive second radio frequency signals from a plurality of satellites in a global positioning system. The position of the receiver is identified using a number of distances and a number of angles identified from the number of first radio frequency signals and a number of positions for the number of platforms.

Global positioning system signal reception with increased resistance to interference

Methods and apparatus to determine a position using light sources are disclosed. An example method includes processing an output of a photodetector based on anticipated codes to identify multiple light sources from which the photodetector receives light at a first position, determining locations of the identified light sources; and determining a location of the first position based on the locations of the identified light sources.

Methods and apparatus to determine a position using light sources

Methods and apparatuses are provided for managing a state of a platform. The methods and apparatuses comprise receiving a desired state for the platform. The methods and apparatuses comprise receiving the state of the platform. The methods and apparatuses comprise selecting a combination of thrusters from a plurality of thrusters to operate. The combination of thrusters is selected to adjust the state of the platform to the desired state. The methods and apparatuses operate the combination of thrusters to adjust the state of the platform to the desired state.

Health-adaptive reaction control system

A system and method for actively controlling a structure is disclosed. At least one non-optimal event is identified in real-time based on at least one real-time elasticity measurement, if an event threshold exceeds a predetermined value. In response to an active control command, a control mechanism is then activated in real-time to compensate for the non-optimal event.

Structural health management with active control using integrated elasticity measurement

Methods and apparatuses are provided for managing a plurality of thrusters in a platform. The method and apparatuses comprise operating the plurality of thrusters in the platform with a thruster control system. The methods and apparatuses comprise estimating a vehicle response resulting from the operation of the plurality of thrusters to form an estimated vehicle response. The methods and apparatuses also comprise comparing the estimated vehicle response to a desired vehicle response to develop objective function errors. Also, the methods and apparatuses comprise developing a number of commands configured to correct the objective function errors.

An active wing and lift surface control system for an aircraft is described. The wing and lift surface control system includes an aeroelasticity measurement system configured to provide at least one of real time wing twist measurements and real time measurements of aircraft body bending, at least one actuator mechanically coupled to a control surface of the aircraft, and a control system communicatively coupled to the aeroelasticity measurement system and to the at least one actuator. The control system is operable to receive the measurements from the aeroelasticity measurement system and generate control signals, based on the real time measurements, to operate the at least one actuator to adjust a drag associated with one or more of the wing and the aircraft body.

Methods and systems for active wing and lift surface control using integrated aeroelasticity measurements

Techniques for removing time tag jitter and crossover distortion from a measurement system are described. A period or clock drift estimate is generated for each sensor, and the estimates are used to remove time tag jitter and detect and remove crossover distortion. This crossover distortion condition is common to measurement systems required to acquire and accurately time tag data from multiple sensors where the sensors produce data at an asynchronous periodic rate which may result in a distortion in time tag accuracy. These techniques are germane to aircraft and other systems that require precisely time correlated measurements from multiple sensors hosted by a data control system, and can obviate the use of real time operating systems and specialized hardware for this purpose.

Removing time tag jitter and crossover distortion

An aircraft aeroelasticity measurement system according to the invention can be used to perform in-flight wing twist measurements of an aircraft or any moving vehicle or structure on which its sensors can be mounted. The system includes a centralized processing unit, a reference navigation unit mounted in the aircraft body, a plurality of measurement navigation units mounted in the aircraft wings, and a global positioning system ('GPS') receiver that generates GPS data for enhancing the accuracy of the navigation data. The system collects navigation data from the reference navigation unit and the measurement navigation units, generates navigation solutions from the navigation data, and performs a stochastic alignment and flexure estimation procedure to generate a corrected measurement solution that indicates the aeroelasticity of the aircraft. Wing twist and wing deflection information can be derived from the corrected measurement solution.

Growing community of inventors

Fox Island, WA, United States of America

Darin William Brekke