Safety for Pilots - Automatic Landing of VTOL UAVs
System Concept
K-LOC 3D.01.01 is a GNSS-independent, high performance, Radar-based 3D positioning system which enables manned and remotely piloted aerial vehicles (RPAS) to determine their relative position in all environmental conditions. The KY-LOC 3D system allows safe take-off and landing procedures in GPS-denied environments or in scenarios that lack reference points or visual cues.
The system builds up of three elements.
The airborne element which consists of 1-2 airborne receivers which are mounted downwards oriented on the bottom of the fuselage and the Ground Elements consisting of 4-6 ground beacons which are installed around the landing pad and a ground operator visualization SW which displays the aircraft position, The SW can run stand alone or can be easily integrated into any GCS.
For operations on small or moving helidecks, a highly accurate relative 3D position is essential, not to endanger a whole mission. To further improve the mission safety, K-LOC 3D provides a highly reliable bidirectional data link which can be used as fall back in case of a primary data link outage. On top, the airborne units can be switched into a radar altimeter mode to get rid of any existing altimeters and safe even more weight.
Enabling automatic VTOL UAV landings or assisted manual helicopter landings on moving platforms (Click to enlarge)
Graphical visualisation of aircraft approach / Easy integra table Operator GUI (Click to enlarge)
K-LOC 3D ground element (beacon) for automatic take-off and landing of VTOL UAVs (Click to enlarge)
K-LOC enables safe helicopter Off-Shore Operations (Click to enlarge)
System Specification
- RF-based local positioning system
- GNSS independent ranging signals emitted by Ground Beacons
- Operating Range up to 500m
- Position update rate 20 Hz
- Position Accuracy better than 10 cm during take-off & landing
Ground Element
- 4-6 Ground Beacons
- Quick & easy, ad-hoc deployable or permanent installation
- Battery and or line-powered
- Fully ruggedized for harsh military and naval conditions
Airborne Element
- 1-2 Airborne Receivers (Position vs. Position + Heading)
- Standardized Interface providing relative 3-D position, heading & velocity to FMS/Autopilot
Operator Element
- Graphical user interface which can run stand alone or be integrated in any GCS or flight deck management SW