US 12,312,069 B2
Passenger discomfort-aware flight control system
Oliver Dieterich, Woerthsee (DE); Christian Fischer, Neuried (DE); Robin Lantzsch, Augsburg (DE); Sueleyman Oezkurt, Leinfelden-Echterdingen (DE); Walter Fichter, Constance (DE); and Tobias Rath, Munich (DE)
Assigned to AIRBUS HELICOPTERS DEUTSCHLAND GmbH, Donauworth (DE)
Filed by AIRBUS HELICOPTERS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, Donauworth (DE)
Filed on Sep. 16, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/946,783.
Claims priority of application No. 21400022 (EP), filed on Oct. 21, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0125334 A1, Apr. 27, 2023
Int. Cl. B64C 13/38 (2006.01); B64C 27/00 (2006.01); B64D 47/00 (2006.01)
CPC B64C 13/38 (2013.01) [B64C 27/00 (2013.01); B64D 47/00 (2013.01)] 12 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A flight control system that is adapted for controlling movements of a rotary wing aircraft, comprising:
sensors that are configured to generate sensor data based on captured motions of the rotary wing aircraft;
motion actuators that are adapted for inducing a translational and/or a rotational movement of the rotary wing aircraft about at least one of a yaw axis, a roll axis, or a pitch axis of the rotary wing aircraft; and
a passenger discomfort-aware control unit that is configured to receive the sensor data from the sensors and to generate, based on the sensor data, passenger discomfort-aware actuator control signals for controlling the motion actuators, wherein the passenger discomfort-aware actuator control signals are at least suitable for kinetosis reduction or for whole-body vibration reduction in passengers of the rotary-wing aircraft when being applied to the motion actuators;
wherein the passenger discomfort-aware control unit generates the passenger discomfort-aware actuator control signals based on a linear feedback function that minimizes a transfer from the sensor data to control signals that increase a difference of a passenger discomfort index from a reference value, the reference value being indicative of an absence of passenger discomfort; and
the linear feedback function is determined with a feedback controller that is adjusted based on an application of a predetermined filter signal in a passenger discomfort weighting filter, the predetermined filter signal being determined based on motion simulations of representative trajectories of the rotary wing aircraft with a motion simulator for flight control system design.