Autonomous flight controls for providing safe mode navigation

摘要

The present invention is directed to a flight controls system and a method for navigating an aircraft via the flight controls system implemented on-board an aircraft. The flight controls system may provide a first mode for allowing the aircraft to be autonomously navigated safely to a loiter zone in the event the pilot becomes incapacitated or unable to operate the aircraft. Further, the flight controls system may provide a second mode for providing autonomous landing functionality for the aircraft when the engines of the aircraft have failed.

主权项

1. A method implemented as a set of instructions stored on a non-transitory medium and executed by an on-board processor for navigating an aircraft via a flight controls system on-board the aircraft, the method comprising:
dynamically determining safe zones and navigation paths to the safe zones for the aircraft by the on-board processor; receiving a mode input from onboard the aircraft for causing a safe mode of the system to be engaged; establishing the system in the safe mode in response to the received mode input; causing a mode engage status indicator to be provided by the on-board flight controls system; and providing navigational guidance via the on-board flight controls system to guide the aircraft via a selected navigation path included amongst the determined navigation paths to a safe zone included amongst the safe zones.