Redundant determination of positional data for an automatic landing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9728094-B2
Application number	US-201514865599-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Sep 26, 2014
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

An automatic landing system contains a control device for providing positional data for controlling an aircraft, a first position or range measuring device for detecting first positional data of the aircraft, a second position or range measuring device for detecting second positional data of the aircraft, and a sensor device for detecting sensor data from which a direction in which a landmark is located and/or a distance of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined. The control device may be configured to generate, based on the first positional data, a first hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark and, based on the second positional data, a second hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark. Moreover, the control device may be configure to confirm or discard the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, using the sensor data detected by the sensor device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An automatic landing system for an aircraft, comprising:
a control device configured to provide positional data for controlling the aircraft;
a first position or range measuring device configured to detect first positional data of the aircraft;
a second position or range measuring device configured to detect second positional data of the aircraft; and
a sensor device configured to detect sensor data from which at least one of a direction in which a landmark is located and a range of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined,
wherein the control device is configured to generate a first hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark on the basis of the first positional data and a second hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark on the basis of the second positional data,
wherein the control device is configured to either confirm or discard the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, using the sensor data detected by the sensor device, and
wherein the control device is configured to determine that only positional data, on which a confirmed hypothesis is based, is to be used to control the aircraft.

2. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the control device, in order to check the first and second hypotheses, is further configured to determine a first correlation for the first hypothesis and the sensor data, as well as a second correlation for the second hypothesis and the sensor data, and
wherein the control device is configured to confirm the hypothesis having a better correlation with the sensor data.

3. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the direction in which the landmark is located and the range of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined from the sensor data, and
wherein the first and second hypotheses each constitute a hypothesis for the direction and the range of the landmark.

4. The landing system as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the direction in which the landmark is located and the range of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined from the sensor data, and
wherein the first and second hypotheses each constitute a hypothesis for the direction and the range of the landmark.

5. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the sensor device has a signal detection device for detecting electromagnetic signals of a signal source.

6. The landing system as set forth in any claim 1 , further comprising:
an altitude measuring device configured to determine a flight altitude of the aircraft,
wherein the control device is configured to generate a third hypothesis for the flight altitude of the aircraft based on the first positional data and a fourth hypothesis for the flight altitude of the aircraft based on the second positional data,
wherein the control device is configured to confirm or discard the third hypothesis and the fourth hypothesis, respectively, with the flight altitude determined by the altitude measuring device, and
wherein the control device is configured to determine that only the positional data on which a hypothesis for the flight altitude of the aircraft that has been confirmed during the check is based are used to control the aircraft.

7. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the control device is configured to compare the first positional data and the second positional data; and
wherein the control device is to determine which sensor data are not to be used for controlling the aircraft only if the first positional data and the second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount.

8. The landing system as set forth in claim 2 ,
wherein the control device is configured to compare the first positional data and the second positional data; and
wherein the control device is to determine which sensor data are not to be used for controlling the aircraft only if the first positional data and the second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount.

9. The landing system as set forth in claim 6 ,
wherein the control device is configured to compare the first positional data and the second positional data; and
wherein the control device is to determine which sensor data are not to be used for controlling the aircraft only if the first positional data and the second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount.

10. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the control device is designed to abort a landing approach of the aircraft if, at an altitude below a predefined altitude, the first and second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount and no determination has been made concerning the positional data to be used.

11. The landing system as set forth in claim 2 ,
wherein the control device is designed to abort a landing approach of the aircraft if, at an altitude below a predefined altitude, the first and second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount and no determination has been made concerning the positional data to be used.

12. The landing system as set forth in claim 6 ,
wherein the control device is designed to abort a landing approach of the aircraft if, at an altitude below a predefined altitude, the first and second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount and no determination has been made concerning the positional data to be used.

13. The landing system as set forth in claim 7 ,
wherein the control device is designed to abort a landing approach of the aircraft if, at an altitude below a predefined altitude, the first and second positional data differ from one another by more than a predefined amount and no determination has been made concerning the positional data to be used.

14. The landing system as set forth in claim 1 ,
wherein the first position or range measuring device is a satellite-based measuring device,
wherein the second position or range measuring device is a radar tracker or a laser tracker, and
wherein the sensor device has an optical camera, an infrared camera, an ultraviolet camera and/or a radar receiver for generating images.

15. The landing system as set forth in claim 2 ,
wherein the first position or range measuring device is a satellite-based measuring device,
wherein the second position or range measuring device is a radar tracker or a laser tracker, and
wherein the sensor device has an optical camera, an infrared camera, an ultraviolet camera and/or a radar receiver for generating images.

16. The landing system as set forth in claim 6 ,
wherein the first position or range measuring device is a satellite-based measuring device,
wherein the second position or range measuring device is a radar tracker or a laser tracker, and
wherein the sensor device has an optical camera, an infrared camera, an ultraviolet camera and/or a radar receiver for generating images.

17. The landing system as set forth in claim 7 ,
wherein the first position or range measuring device is a satellite-based measuring device,
wherein the second position or range measuring device is a radar tracker or a laser tracker, and
wherein the sensor device has an optical camera, an infrared camera, an ultraviolet camera and/or a radar receiver for generating images.

18. The landing system as set forth in claim 10 ,
wherein the first position or range measuring device is a satellite-based measuring device,
wherein the second position or range measuring devi

Assignees

• Airbus Defence & Space Gmbh

Inventors

• Hanel Martin
• Stahl Christoph
• Lohmiller Winfried

Classifications

• G01S19/20

  Integrity monitoring, fault detection or fault isolation of space segment · CPC title

• G01S7/412

  based on a comparison between measured values and known or stored values · CPC title

• G01S19/15

  Aircraft landing systems · CPC title

• G01S13/876

  Combination of several spaced transponders or reflectors of known location for determining the position of a receiver (G01S13/874 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S19/13

  Receivers · CPC title