Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Aeronautical vehicle
Patent
1997-12-30
2000-01-04
Zanelli, Michael J.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Aeronautical vehicle
342 33, G06F 1900, G08G 502
Patent
active
060120010
ABSTRACT:
A method and apparatus are described for the determination of the height above a landing surface and the rate of descent to the landing surface for a fixed wing or rotary wing aircraft when the aircraft is less than about 100 feet above the landing surface. The invention relies on the time-of-flight measurement of preferably short infrared pulses that are transmitted from the sensing device and reflected back to the sensing device from the landing surface. Multiple sensors can be used for redundancy. For each sensing unit the distance is determined by a conversion of the time-of-flight information into a distance reading. The rate of descent is determined from successive distance determinations. An additional algorithm determines if the rate of descent is excessive for the distance above the landing surface and generates an alarm such as an audible or visual signal.
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