Crew seat integral inceptor system for aircraft

1. A system for controlling a trajectory of a vehicle, comprising:

a crew seat with a seat arm;

an inceptor mounted to a portion of the seat arm, the inceptor including a spherical body having vertical, horizontal and three rotational degrees of freedom for selecting a trajectory of the vehicle, the spherical body including a plurality of controls for inputting the selected trajectory to the vehicle;

a processor with memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:

select a trajectory for the vehicle in response to a motion of the inceptor along at least one of the horizontal, vertical and rotational degrees of freedom; and

transmit to the vehicle signals for controlling the trajectory of the vehicle in response to the selecting the trajectory.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the spherical body of the inceptor is configured to be held in an operator's hand as a forearm of the operator rests on the seat arm.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the spherical body of the inceptor includes a thumb wheel for selecting a time at which a flight path trajectory selected by the inceptor is applied to the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the crew seat is configured to be located on the vehicle, in a control station remotely located from the vehicle, or in a second vehicle remotely located from the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising another inceptor that is configured for selecting one or more menus on a user display.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the other inceptor is configured to interact with a fly-by-wire control system for transmitting signals indicative of movement of flight surface of the vehicle.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the inceptor includes a thumb wheel configured to navigate through menus that are displayed on a graphical user interface.

8. A method for controlling a trajectory of a vehicle, comprising:

receiving, with a processor, signals indicative of the trajectory for the vehicle;

receiving, with the processor, signals indicative of a deviation in the trajectory of the vehicle from an inceptor mounted on an arm of a crew seat of the vehicle, the inceptor including a spherical body having vertical, horizontal and three rotational degrees of freedom for selecting a trajectory of the vehicle, wherein motion of the spherical body along at least one of the horizontal, vertical and rotational degrees of freedom selects the trajectory, the spherical body including a plurality of controls for inputting the signals; and

transmitting, with the processor, signals for controlling the trajectory of the vehicle in response to the receiving of the deviation signals.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising rotating a thumb wheel of the spherical body of the inceptor to select a time at which a flight path trajectory selected by the inceptor is applied to the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising locating the crew seat on the vehicle, in a control station remotely located from the vehicle, or in a second vehicle remotely located from the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising selecting one or more menus on a user display via another inceptor.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the other inceptor is configured for interacting with a fly-by-wire control system for transmitting signals indicative of movement of flight surface of the vehicle.

13. The system of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a flight path trajectory selected by the inceptor at a graphical user interface.

14. The system of claim 3 , wherein the time at which a flight path trajectory is applied to the vehicle further comprises a waypoint of the vehicle.