Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information

摘要

Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information are provided. In one embodiment, an attitude heading reference device comprises: at least one interface for receiving heading information from one or more IRUs; at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers; a memory device for storing data representing heading information received via the at least one interface; and a heading calculator coupled to the at least one interface, the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers, and the memory device. The heading calculator generating a heading output signal based on heading information when reliable heading information is received over the at least one interface; the heading calculator generating the heading output signal based on data from the memory device regarding previously reliable heading information and an output of the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers when reliable heading information is not received over the at least one interface.

主权项

1. An inertial system, the system comprising:
one or more inertial reference units (IRUs) each providing a heading information signal; an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) receiving the heading information signal from each of the one or more IRUs, the AHRS including at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers, a memory device and a heading calculator; wherein the heading calculator is configured to receive a slaving signal that is generated based on the heading information signal from at least one of the one or more IRUs, the heading calculator further configured to receive a signal from the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers; a voter module for generating the slaving signal, wherein the voter module determines a reliability of heading information provided from the one or more IRUs based on relative agreement of heading information between at least two IRUs; wherein, when the reliable heading information is being received from at least one of the one or more IRUs, the AHRS operates in a normal mode where the heading calculator generates a heading output signal from the slaving signal; and wherein, when reliable heading information is not received from at least one of the one or more IRUs, the AHRS switches to a directional-gyro (DG) mode of operation where the heading calculator generates the heading output signal from an output of the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers and information stored in the memory device regarding previously reliable heading information.