Navigation systems and methods for operation
AssigneeAurora Flight Sciences Corporation, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company
InventorJacob Kenin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A navigation system for an aircraft includes a light source, a light sensor, one or more processors, and a computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the navigation system to perform functions. The functions include illuminating a surface using the light source to cause light to be reflected from the surface and detecting the light and generating data representing the light using the light sensor. The data maps intensities of the light to respective positions on the surface. The functions further include identifying within the data a subset of the data that corresponds to a border and causing navigation of the aircraft based on a position of the border indicated by the subset of the data.
Claims20
A navigation system for an aircraft comprising:
- a light source;
- a light sensor;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the navigation system to perform functions comprising:
- illuminating a surface using the light source to cause light to be reflected from the surface;
- detecting the light and generating data representing the light using the light sensor, wherein the data maps intensities of the light to respective positions on the surface;
- identifying within the data a subset of the data that corresponds to a border by:
- selecting two arbitrary data points of the data;
- determining parameters of a curve that includes the two arbitrary data points;
- determining, with respect to the curve, residuals of data points of the subset of the data that are not the two arbitrary data points;
- determining that the residuals are each less than a margin of error and that the subset of the data includes at least a threshold amount of data points;
- and
- determining that the subset of the data includes at least a second threshold amount of data points per unit distance;
- and
- causing navigation of the aircraft on the surface based on a position of the border indicated by the subset of the data.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a navigation system of an aircraft, cause the navigation system to perform functions comprising:
- illuminating a surface to cause light to be reflected from the surface;
- detecting the light and generating data representing the light, wherein the data maps intensities of the light to respective positions on the surface;
- identifying within the data a subset of the data that corresponds to a border by:
- selecting two arbitrary data points of the data;
- determining parameters of a curve that includes the two arbitrary data points;
- determining, with respect to the curve, residuals of data points of the subset of the data that are not the two arbitrary data points;
- determining that the residuals are each less than a margin of error and that the subset of the data includes at least a threshold amount of data points;
- and
- determining that the subset of the data includes at least a second threshold amount of data points per unit distance;
- and
- causing navigation of the aircraft on the surface based on a position of the border indicated by the subset of the data.
A method of operating a navigation system of an aircraft, the method comprising:
- illuminating a surface to cause light to be reflected from the surface;
- detecting the light and generating data representing the light, wherein the data maps intensities of the light to respective positions on the surface;
- identifying within the data a subset of the data that corresponds to a border by:
- selecting two arbitrary data points of the data;
- determining parameters of a curve that includes the two arbitrary data points;
- determining, with respect to the curve, residuals of data points of the subset of the data that are not the two arbitrary data points;
- determining that the residuals are each less than a margin of error and that the subset of the data includes at least a threshold amount of data points;
- and
- determining that the subset of the data includes at least a second threshold amount of data points per unit distance;
- and
- causing navigation of the aircraft on the surface based on a position of the border indicated by the subset of the data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.