3D AIME.TM. aircraft navigation
US6094607A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 27, 1998 |
| Grant date | Jul 25, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 27, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S13/882
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The apparatus of the present invention uses radar altimeter measurements and stored terrain altitude profiles to provide pre-filtered observations to a Kalman filter for estimating barometric offset at the airport runway, and barometric scale factor for offsets above the runway. These offsets are used with the smoothed baro-inertial output from an inertial reference system to provide 3 dimensional constant rate of descent approach procedures to replace non-precision approach procedures based on constant barometric altitude step approaches. The horizontal positions used as reference for the stored terrain altitude profiles are obtained from a prior art navigation apparatus. The integrity of all measurements is assured by using long term averages of the Kalman filter residuals to detect failures. In addition, the estimated baro offset at the runway is compared for consistency with the baro offset obtained by the pilot from the airport by radio.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.