Regulator device for helicopters
View Patent ↗A regulator device used on helicopters carrying an external load suspended from the helicopter by a supporting cable aids in controlling the flight of the helicopter by measuring the oscillating the movement of the external load, converting the detected variables for the oscillating movement to a geodetic coordinate system, generating a closed loop control signals as a function of the variables, and applying the closed loop control signals to open loop control signals which control the flight of the helicopter.
1. A regulator device for a helicopter wherein said helicopter is configured to carry an external load suspended from the helicopter in a direction of the ground on at least one supporting cable, comprising:
at least one load oscillation recording unit for recording an oscillating movement of the external load in lateral and longitudinal directions with respect to a longitudinal axis of the helicopter; and
one or more regulators which convert detected variables for the oscillating movement from said at least one load oscillation recording unit to a geodetic coordinate system, and generate closed-loop control signals as a function of the variables converted to the geodetic coordinate system for the oscillating movement of the external load,
wherein said closed-loop control signals are a function of a mass (m L ) of the external load and a length (I s ) of the at least one supporting cable as parameters, and
wherein said closed-loop control signals are applied to open-loop control signals for controlling flight of the helicopter.
2. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said detected variables for the oscillating movement include changes in oscillation angles between a connecting line from the external load to a suspension point on the helicopter and a vertical ({dot over (φ)} P , {dot over (θ)} P ) which points vertically downward from the suspension point of the helicopter parallel to a vertical axis of the helicopter.
3. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one load oscillation recording unit is a camera fitted underneath the helicopter which records images or image sequences with the oscillating external load,
wherein the image processing unit.
4. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said one or more regulators have a first regulator part which corrects a phase response and a second regulator part which corrects an amplitude response.
5. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said one or more regulators are mutually independent regulators for the generation of said closed-loop control signals as they relate to the lateral direction and the longitudinal direction.
6. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the closed-loop control signals damp the oscillating movement of the external load.
7. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the closed-loop control signals assist in positioning of the external load at an intended location.
8. The regulator device as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said detected variables for the oscillating movement include at least one of the oscillation angles (φ P , θ P ) , and a discrepancy between a position of the external load and a position of an intended location.
9. The regulator device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said one or more regulators use a current speed of the helicopter over the ground as a parameter.