US00578528lA United States Patent 1191 no Patent Number: 5,785,281 Peter et al. [45] Date of Patent: Jul. 28, 1998 [54] LEARNING AUT()P]L()T 5,503,390 4/1996 Frote ..................................... .. 244/190 5.521.817 5/1996 Burdoin et al. 244/190 [75] Inventors: Francis E. Peter; Fred M. Strohacker. 51544961 3/1995 M°11m°'° '5‘ 31- 364/449 both of Albuquerque_ N_ Mex_ 5,555,503 9/1996 Kyrtos et al. 364/449 [73] Assignee: Honeywell Inc.. Minneapolis. Minn. primary Emm;,1e,-_Ga1en 1__ Barefoot Attome); Agent, or Firm—Andrew A. Abeyta; Kenneth J. [21] Appl. No.: 333,162 Johnson [22] Filed: Nov. 1, 1994 [57] ABSTRACT [51] IRL Cl-6 ................................................... .. A lggjning autgpflgt fgr 3 vghjcle pfovidgg [115 capability [0 [52] U.S. Cl. 244/190; 244/3.17; 701/223; command complex maneuvers or maneuver the vehicle 364/456; 342/64 when control by its ground station is not possible. Amemory [58] Field of Search ................................... .. 244/189. 190. is used during a piloted rehearsal mission and position and 244/3.17; 701/223; 364/456. 460. 449; time information for the aircraft is stored in the memory. 342/64; 348/112 This memory is incorporated into the vehicle control system. and during automatic operation of the aircraft. the recorded [56] References Cited position and relative time information is retrieved and compared against position and relative time information US‘ PATENT DOCUMENTS occurring during automatic flight. The diiference between 3,688,252 8/1972 Thompson .............................. .. 340/24 the recorded information and the actual flight information is 4,514,733 4/1985 Schmidtlein et al. 343/5 MM used to generate error signals which are converted to com5.043.903 3/1991 COIISIB-I11 --------------- -- 364/459 mand signals for the vehicle. Maneuvers which were initi5,057,574 11/1991 Hfiyche F1 file -- 244/199 ated and completed by the pilot during the rehearsal mission 2 iégglugfitzel 31 are then repeated during the automatic flight from the flight 512041814 4/1993 Noonan et al.." 364/424.02 ‘“f°"““t‘°“ “med 1“ the m°“1°ry' 5,308,022 5/1994 Cronkite et al. 244/190 5,331,561 7/1994 Barelt et al. .......................... .. 364/447 22 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets L LAT|TUDE(N) _|_? LONG1TUDE(N) T., MEMORY @_ BANK Z(N) 1. OR ® sew T TlM E( N +1 )
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