Volocopter Gmbh

Volocopter Technologies Gmbh

Jan Zwiener

Burak Yüksel

Johannes Stephan

Walter Fichter

Alexander Klingspor

Stephan Wolf

Benjamin Kirsch

Thomas Ruf

Falk Bahr

Jan-Hendrik Boelens

A method for operating an eVTOL multirotor aircraft having distributed actuators activated by controllers that each determines an associated manipulated variable signal at least for a subset of actuators and provides it for the relevant actuator. The method provides that for an actuator: i) assigning a different priority ranking for each controller; ii) determining, by way of a given controller having a given priority ranking, at least one manipulated variable signal for the actuator and transmitting the signal identified by the given priority ranking to the relevant actuator and to a controller having a successive priority ranking; iii) receiving, via a given controller having a given priority ranking, manipulated variable signals from controllers having higher priority ranking and relaying these signals to the actuator and to a controller having a successive priority ranking; and iv) activating the actuator using the manipulated variable signal identified by the highest priority ranking.

Method for operating an aircraft, control architecture for an aircraft, and aircraft having same

A method for controlling an aircraft, in particular a VTOL multirotor aircraft, in which flight influencing units of the aircraft a) are supplied with control commands via a first/control channel from a first computer (COM), which control commands originate or are derived from a pilot input (PE), and b) the control commands are monitored by a second/monitoring channel and a second computer (MON), which checks whether the control commands are suitable for a given physical state of the aircraft and the pilot input, c) the second computer determines whether a current navigation state of the aircraft coincides with the pilot input, which has been transformed into a desired navigation state of the aircraft, preferably by the second computer, within a prescribed deviation, and d) a control signal for controlling the aircraft is generated in dependence on a determination result of step c).

Method for controlling an aircraft, control device for an aircraft and aircraft with such a control device

A method for operating an aircraft with N&#x3e;4 drive units. A flight control system (FCS) generates control commands u_COM, u_COM&#x2208;U&#x2208;R{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}N, for the drive units, via a first channel. u represents limitations of the drive units. The FCS generates pseudo-control commands &#x3b3;_COM, &#x3b3;_COMER{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}4, in the first channel, which specify torques about corresponding axes of rotation of the aircraft and a thrust, a control matrix M&#x2208;R{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}(4&#xd7;N) with &#x3b3;=M u establishing a relationship with the control commands u; in the first channel. Admissible control commands u_COM&#x2208;U are calculated from the pseudo-control commands; and the first channel is monitored and, based on a result, is passivated. Monitoring takes place in a second channel, pseudo-control commands &#x3b3;_MON, &#x3b3;_MON&#x2208;R{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}4, are generated in the second channel and the control commands u_COM of the first channel are evaluated in the second channel using &#x3b3;{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}*=M u_COM, and &#x3b3;{circumflex over (&#x2003;)}* and &#x3b3;_MON are compared. A FCS and aircraft are also provided.

Method for operating an aircraft, flight control system for an aircraft and aircraft with such a flight control system

A method of controlling an actuator system including a plurality of k actuators. Each of the actuators-receives a control input u, wherein index i denotes a particular actuator, which control input uis determined depending on a weight matrix W including a weighting factor wfor each actuator and depending on at least a physical maximum control limit ufor each of the actuators. The weighting factors wand/or physical maximum control limit uare actively changed during operation if a first comparison of the control input uor a function f(u) thereof with a set first threshold value yields that the control input uor function f(u) thereof exceeds the set first threshold value. The first comparison is repeated during operation, and a new control input uis determined from the adjusted weighting factor wand/or the adjusted physical maximum control limit uand applied to the actuators.

Method of controlling an actuator system and aircraft using said method

A method is provided for stabilizing an orientation and height of a person or load-carrying multicopter with a plurality of motors, wherein the drive of the individual motors in flight is continuously calculated by a flight control unit and correspondingly prescribed to the motors using control technology, for which purpose, based on a desired torque &#x3c4;, of a desired thrust s preferably prescribed by a pilot signal, and of a motor matrix M, the drive of the motors is calculated by a motor allocation algorithm f and provided as a control signal to the motors, wherein the following applies to the drive and the corresponding motor control variables u: u=f(&#x3c4;, s, M). The method provides that A) the individual motors are weighted with a preferably diagonally filled matrix P, so that the following applies: u=f(&#x3c4;, s, M, P), the motor allocation algorithm calculates the drive u such that the individual motors make an individual contribution to the desired forces and torques T and to the thrust s in accordance with the matrix P depending on the weighting; and/or B) zero space orientations with 0=M&#xb7;uthat do not generate any torques or thrust, and therefore do not influence the flight movement, are used to drive the motors.

Growing community of inventors

Waldbronn, Germany

Jan Zwiener