Control system for a hydrofoil watercraft with fully submerged hydrofoil
A stabilized a hydrofoil water craft comprising: a water-craft base member, a hydrofoil mast having proximal and distal portions; said proximal portion mechanically connected to said bottom side of said water-craft base member, a fuselage mechanically connected to said distal portion of said at least one hydrofoil mast, a rudder configured for controlling a yaw angle of said water craft, an elevator rotatable around an axis lying in a plane parallel to water-craft base member and a stabilization arrangement further comprising at least one sensor configured for detecting a 3D orientation of said water-craft base member, an estimator configured for estimating the 3D orientation, actuators for manipulating the rudder and elevator and a controller for analyzing the estimated 3D orientation and controlling the actuators. In response to a disturb roll inclination of the water craft, the controller generates a command to a rudder actuator to compensate the detected inclination.
1 . A stabilized hydrofoil water craft comprising:
a. a water-craft base member having a top side and a bottom side;
b. a hydrofoil mast having proximal and distal portions, said proximal portion mechanically connected to said bottom side of said water-craft base member;
c. a fuselage having a main wing, said fuselage mechanically connected to said distal portion of said at least one hydrofoil mast;
d. a rudder, said rudder configured for controlling a yaw angle of said water craft wherein said rudder is connected to an aft portion of said fuselage;
e. a elevator rotatable around an axis thereof lying in a plane parallel to said water-craft base member; said elevator configured for controlling a pitch angle of said water craft; and
f. a stabilization arrangement further comprising at least one sensor configured for detecting a 3D orientation of said water-craft base member, an estimator configured for estimating a height of said water-craft base member over a water level and yaw, pitch and roll angles, actuators configured for manipulating said rudder and elevator, and a controller implemented within a control unit, said controller configured for analyzing estimated values of the height, yaw, pitch and roll angles and controlling said actuators;
wherein, in response to a disturb roll inclination of said water craft from a predetermined setpoint, said controller is configured for generating a command to said actuator of said rudder for rotation of said rudder such that said rudder induces a correcting roll inclination compensating said disturb roll inclination of water craft.
2 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said controller comprises software means installed thereon and based on an algorithm is selected from the group consisting of PID control, linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) control, fuzzy logic, machine learning, feedback linearization, and any combination thereof.
3 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 2 , wherein said software means is configured to sense a center of mass of a user relative to said watercraft.
4 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 3 , wherein said center of mass provides at least one setpoint for controlling of at least one of direction of motion of said watercraft, speed of said watercraft and height of flight of said watercraft.
5 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 2 , wherein said software means is configured for presetting at least one route and following said at least one route.
6 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said controller is configured for compensating said disturb pitch and yaw inclinations from predetermined setpoint.
7 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said controller is configured to control at least one of speed and direction of movement of said watercraft.
8 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein any of said roll, yaw, pitch, speed and direction setpoints is controlled automatically or manually.
9 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 8 comprising a control unit for manually controlling said roll, yaw, pitch, speed and direction; said control effector is selected from the group consisting of a tiller, a joystick, a button, a wheel, a trigger, a touchscreen, a keyboard, an optical sensor, a remote control and any combination thereof.
10 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 8 , comprising a control unit for automatically controlling said roll, yaw, pitch, speed and direction; said control effector is selected from the group consisting of a tilt sensing (attitude) type control device, a pressure sensor, a foot pedal, an optical sensor, a load cell, a processor configured to analyze elevator deflection, a remote control and any combination thereof.
11 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein a cross-section of said hydrofoil mast has a longitudinal axis significantly greater than a transverse axis of said hydrofoil mast.
12 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said main wing comprises at least one movable flap, said at least one movable flap is configured for controlling a lift force applied to said stabilized hydrofoil water craft; said flap is rotatable about a longitudinal horizontal axis of said wing.
13 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said hydrofoil water craft is propelled by a member of a group consisting of: a jet-type configuration, by a propeller-type configuration, a paddle, a sail, a paddle wheel, a screw, a Voith Schneider Propeller (VSP), a kite and any combination thereof.
14 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said at least one sensor is selected from a group consisting of: an attitude sensor, an acceleration sensor, a height sensor, a speed sensor, a location sensor, a yaw-angle sensor, a pitch-angle sensor, a roll-angle sensor and any combination thereof.
15 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 14 , wherein said attitude sensor is configured to measure a member of a group consisting of pitch, roll, yaw and any combination thereof.
16 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 14 , wherein said location sensor is selected from a group consisting of: magnetic compass, GPS, pedometer, inertial navigation (INS), and any combination thereof.
17 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 14 , wherein said speed sensor is selected from a group consisting of: GPS, inertial sensor, marine pitot tube log, paddle wheel log, ultrasonic speed log and any combination thereof.
18 . The stabilized hydrofoil water craft of claim 1 , wherein said height sensor is configured to measure a member of a group consisting of absolute height, height above sea level, depth below sea level and any combination thereof.
19 . A method of stabilizing a hydrofoil watercraft comprising steps of:
a. providing a hydrofoil watercraft comprising:
i. a water-craft base member having a bottom side;
ii. a hydrofoil mast having proximal and distal portions, said proximal portion mechanically connected to said bottom side of said water-craft base member;
iii. a fuselage having a main wing, said fuselage mechanically connected to said distal portion of said at least one hydrofoil mast;
iv. a rudder configured for controlling a yaw angle of said water craft wherein said rudder is connected to an aft portion of said fuselage;
v. a elevator configured for controlling a pitch angle of said water craft; and
vi. a stabilization arrangement comprising at least one sensor configured for detecting a 3D orientation of said water-craft base member, an estimator configured for estimating a height of said water-craft base member over a water level and yaw, pitch and roll angles, actuators configured for manipulating said rudder and elevator, and a controller implemented within a control unit, said controller configured for analyzing estimated values of the height, yaw, pitch and roll angles and controlling said actuators;
in response to a disturb roll inclination of said water craft from a predetermined setpoint, said controller is configured for generating a command to a rudder actuator for rotation of said rudder;
b. sensing and estimating said disturb roll inclination
c. generating a command by said controller;
d. transmitting said command to said rudder actuator;
rotating said rudder by said rudder actuator such that said rudder induces a correcting roll inclination compensating said disturb roll inclination of water craft.