Methods and apparatus to mitigate instrument landing system overflight interference

• US 8,958,932 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2013
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Murphy, Tim
• Primary Examiner(s): TISSOT, ADAM D
• Application Number:
  US13/764,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20140229039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 736 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3- 18, 701/500, 701/504, 340/945
• US Class Current: 701/17
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/04 Landing aids; Safety measures to prevent collision with earth's surface
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/165 combined with non-inertial navigation instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/023 Monitoring or calibrating
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/28 using amplitude comparison of signals derived simultaneously from receiving antennas or antenna systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics

Abstract

Systems and methods to mitigate instrument landing system (ILS) overflight interference are disclosed. An example method performing a first measurement of a position of an aircraft relative to a first location based on an instrument landing system, performing a second measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a first time period occurring prior to the first measurement, performing a third measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a second time period greater than the first time period and occurring prior to the first measurement, and generating guidance information based on a selected one of the first, second, or third measurements of the position of the aircraft.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing, using a processor, a first measurement of a position of an aircraft relative to a first location based on an instrument landing system;

performing, using the processor, a second measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a first time period occurring prior to the first measurement;

performing, using the processor, a third measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a second time period greater than the first time period and occurring prior to the first measurement; and

generating, using the processor, guidance information based on a selected one of the first, second, or third measurements of the position of the aircraft.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising converting the first measurement of the position to a rectilinear coordinate system.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein performing the first measurement of the position of the aircraft comprises converting a change in position of the aircraft to the rectilinear coordinate system.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing the second measurement of the position of the aircraft comprises converting the inertial measurements performed over the first time period to a change in position.

5. The method as defined in claim 4, wherein converting the inertial measurements comprises performing an integration of the inertial measurements.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing the third measurement of the position of the aircraft comprises converting the inertial measurements performed over the second time period to a change in position.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first time period comprises a minimum amount of time to detect overflight interference of the instrument landing system.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining a first position of an aircraft comprises:

converting angular lateral deviation measurements from the instrument landing system to rectilinear coordinates; and

determining the first position relative to an intersection of a runway threshold and a runway centerline.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising performing inertial measurements using an inertial reference unit and correcting the inertial measurements by removing bias errors, the second and third measurements being based on corrected inertial measurements occurring prior to the first measurement.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, further comprising converting the second and third measurements to a rectilinear coordinate system.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising analyzing measurements of lateral deviation based on the instrument landing system for the first time period to detect interference with signals received from the instrument landing system.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

an instrument landing system to perform a first measurement of a position of an aircraft relative to a first location;

an inertial reference unit to perform inertial measurements of a change in location of the aircraft; and

a position selector to select between the first measurement, a second measurement of the position of the aircraft based on the inertial measurements over a first time period occurring prior to the first measurement, and a third measurement of the position of the aircraft based on the inertial measurements performed over a second time period greater than the first time period and occurring prior to the first measurement, and to generate guidance information based on a selected one of the first, second, or third measurements of the position of the aircraft.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, further comprising a bias estimator to estimate a measurement bias of the inertial measurements.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the bias estimator is to estimate the measurement bias based on satellite-based guidance.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, further comprising a reference grid generator to generate a reference grid with respect to a runway, the first, second, and third measurements to be expressed based on the reference grid.

16. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, further comprising a buffer to store a plurality of inertial measurements.

17. The apparatus as defined in claim 16, further comprising a position converter to convert at least a portion of the inertial measurements stored in the buffer to a calculated change in position of the aircraft over the first time period.

18. The apparatus as defined in claim 17, further comprising a summer to generate the second measurement of the position of the aircraft based on the calculated change in position of the aircraft over the first time period and a measured position of the aircraft at a beginning of the first time period.

19. A computer readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to:

perform a first measurement of a position of an aircraft relative to a first location based on an instrument landing system;

perform a second measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a first time period occurring prior to the first measurement;

perform a third measurement of the position of the aircraft based on inertial measurements performed over a second time period greater than the first time period and occurring prior to the first measurement; and

generate guidance information based on a selected one of the first, second, or third measurements of the position of the aircraft.

20. The storage medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to perform the second measurement of the position of the aircraft by converting the inertial measurements performed over the first time period to a change in position.