Automatic aircraft landing
First Claim
1. An automatic aircraft landing system for automatically landing an aircraft on a runway, the system comprising:
- (a) data acquisition apparatus (DAA) including means for acquiring flight data pertaining to the descent of an aircraft along a flight path defined between a final capture point and a touchdown point on the runway; and
(b) a controller responsive to the flight data for providing control signals to at least one of the aircraft'"'"'s primary controls for urging the aircraft to essentially adhere to a guide path along at least an upper portion of its flight pathwhereinsaid controller is a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) including a rule base of production rules for processing the flight data, said FLC adapted to achieve two or more different sets of flight guidelines each respectively operative singly or in combination at different altitudes.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic aircraft landing system (AALS) (10) for automatically landing an aircraft on a runway. The AALS (10) includes data acquisition apparatus (DAA) (24) for acquiring flight data pertaining to the descent of an aircraft along a flight path (26) defined between a final capture point (16) and a touchdown point on the runway. The AALS (10) also includes a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) (20) responsive to the flight data for providing control signals according to at least one set of flight guidelines to at least one of the aircraft'"'"'s primary controls for at least urging the aircraft to essentially adhere to a guide path (28) along at least a portion of its flight path.
60 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An automatic aircraft landing system for automatically landing an aircraft on a runway, the system comprising:
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(a) data acquisition apparatus (DAA) including means for acquiring flight data pertaining to the descent of an aircraft along a flight path defined between a final capture point and a touchdown point on the runway; and (b) a controller responsive to the flight data for providing control signals to at least one of the aircraft'"'"'s primary controls for urging the aircraft to essentially adhere to a guide path along at least an upper portion of its flight path wherein said controller is a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) including a rule base of production rules for processing the flight data, said FLC adapted to achieve two or more different sets of flight guidelines each respectively operative singly or in combination at different altitudes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An automatic aircraft landing method for automatically landing an aircraft on a runway, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) capturing an aircraft at a final capture point; (b) acquiring flight data pertaining to the descent of an aircraft along a flight path defined between the final capture point and a touchdown point on the runway; (c) fuzzy-logic-processing the flight data through an FLC rule base according to two or more sets of flight guidelines to provide control signals, each respectively operative singly or in combination at different altitudes, to at least one of the aircraft'"'"'s primary controls for urging the aircraft to essentially adhere to a guide path along at least an upper portion of its flight path; and (d) operating the aircraft'"'"'s primary controls in accordance with the control signals to land the aircraft on the runway, wherein the step (c) includes fuzzy logic processing of the flight data by means of fuzzy logic controller including a rule base of production rules so as to achieve two or more different sets of flight guidelines each respectively operative singly or in combination at different altitudes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An automatic aircraft landing system for automatically landing an aircraft on a runway, the system comprising:
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(a) data acquisition apparatus for acquiring flight data pertaining to the descent of an aircraft along a flight path defined between a final capture point and a touchdown point on the runway;
said apparatus being provided with means including a camera trained on said aircraft to view its descent along said flight path, to display an image of the descending aircraft, and to extract therefrom said flight data; and(b) a fuzzy logic controller responsive to the flight for providing control signals according to at least one set of flight guidelines operative at different altitudes, to at least one primary control of the aircraft for urging the aircraft to essentially adhere to a guide path along at least an upper portion of its flight path.
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Specification