Method and system for the navigation and control of vehicles at an airport and in the surrounding airspace

• US 20040225432A1
• Filed: 12/11/2003
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/1991
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Harold R. Pilley
• Original Assignee: H. Robert Pilley
• Inventors: Wortley, Lois V., Pilley, Harold R.
• Application Number:
  US10/733,968
• Publication Number:
  US 20040225432A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/047 Displays or indicators G01S1/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/071 DGPS corrections
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/15 Aircraft landing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/20 Integrity monitoring, fault detection or fault isolation of space segment
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/41 Differential correction, e.g. DGPS [differential GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A navigation and airport control and management method and system for aircraft and surface vehicles. The system incorporates the use of differential GPS to provide increased accuracy and robustness for aircraft and vehicles using GPS as the primary terminal area navigation system. An antenna is precisely located and identified with GPS compatible coordinate references. GPS signals are received with the antenna and supplied to a differential GPS base station. The base station calculates psuedorange and delta range corrections for each tracked satellite. Calculated differential corrections are then broadcast to vehicles in the local area using a radio transmitter. Vehicles receive the broadcast differential corrections and calculate differentially corrected position, velocity and time (PVT) information. This information is used on aboard the vehicle for navigational or automatic dependent surveillance purposes. At an airport control and management system ADS broadcasts are received and used for control purposes.

The construction of precise digital maps compatible with GPS is used for vehicle onboard navigation and for air traffic control situation display purposes. The digital maps include airport features such as runways, taxiways, gate areas, geographical features nearby the airport and other pieces of useful in formation.

Claims

1. An airport navigation method for a plurality vehicles selected from the group comprising aircraft and surface vehicles, said method comprising

a. installing a GPS reference antenna at a known physical location, said physical location being GPS referenced;

b. preparing an airport map that is GPS referenced;

said map containing at least one digital representation of features selected from the group comprising runways, taxiways, gate areas, geographical features of the area surrounding the airport, topography surrounding the airport, approach paths, departure paths and identified obstructions;

c. providing said map to a vehicular navigation computer system;

d. receiving GPS signals at said GPS reference antenna;

e. providing said received GPS signals to a Differential GPS base station;

f. calculating with said Differential GPS base station differential corrections;

g. providing said differential corrections to a radio transmitter;

h. broadcasting using said radio transmitter, said differential corrections to said vehicle;

i. receiving using a radio receiver located on said vehicle said broadcast differential corrections;

j. receiving GNSS signals using a GNSS antenna located on said vehicle and providing said received GNSS signals to a differential GNSS receiver located on said vehicle;

k. providing said received differential corrections to said differential GPS receiver;

l. calculating using said differential GPS receiver at least one differentially corrected information element selected from the group comprising 3-dimensional position, 2-dimensional horizontal position, vertical position, 3-dimensional velocity, speed, heading, vertical rate and time;

m. navigating said vehicle using said differentially corrected information using said vehicular navigation computer system that displays said location of said vehicle on said digital map.

2. An airport control and management method for a plurality vehicles selected from the group comprising aircraft and surface vehicles, said method comprising

a. installing a GPS reference antenna at a known physical location, said physical location being GPS referenced;

b. preparing an airport map that is GPS referenced;

said map containing at least one digital representation of features selected from the group comprising runways, taxiways, gate areas, geographical features of the area surrounding the airport, topography surrounding the airport, approach paths, departure paths and identified obstructions;

c. providing said map to an airport control and management computer system;

d. receiving GPS signals at said GNSS reference antenna;

e. providing said received GPS signals to a Differential GPS base station;

f. calculating with said Differential GPS base station differential corrections;

g. providing said differential corrections to a radio transmitter;

h. broadcasting using said radio transmitter, said differential corrections to said vehicle;

i. receiving using a radio receiver located on said vehicle said broadcast differential corrections;

j. receiving GPS signals using a GPS antenna located on said vehicle and providing said received GPS signals to a differential GPS receiver located on said vehicle;

k. providing said received differential corrections to said differential GPS receiver;

l calculating using said differential GPS receiver at least one differentially corrected information element selected from the group comprising 3-dimensional position, 2-dimensional horizontal position, vertical position, 3-dimensional velocity, speed, heading, vertical rate and time;

m. broadcasting differentially corrected position information indicative of said vehicle location using a radio transmitter located on said vehicle;

n. receiving said broadcast position information at said control and management computer system;

o. presenting said airport map on a display of said airport control and management computer system and

p. displaying the location of said vehicle in said presented airport map using said received broadcast position information.

3. An airport navigation system, the system comprising:

a. a GPS antenna used to receive broadcast signals from GPS satellites, said GPS antenna located at a known location, identified with 3-dimensional GPS compatible coordinates;

b. a differential GPS base station that receives GPS signals from said GPS antenna;

c. means within said differential GPS base station to calculate differential corrections consisting of psuedorange corrections;

d. a radio transmitter connected to said differential GPS base station;

e. means within said differential GPS base station to send psuedorange corrections to said radio transmitter;

f. a radio receiver located on a vehicle selected from the group comprising aircraft and surface equipment;

g. means on said vehicle to receive said psuedorange corrections using said radio receiver and means to provide said psuedorange corrections to an onboard differential GPS receiver;

h. means to calculate a differentially corrected position using said onboard differential GPS receiver and said received psuedorange corrections and

i. means to navigate said vehicle using said differentially corrected GPS position.