Autonomous, electric vehicle for aviation-related applications

A vehicle comprising:

• a chassis for supporting a ground contacting structure of an aircraft, the chassis including:
• a housing for holding the ground contacting structure;
• a drivetrain;
• and
• a coupler configured to:
• facilitate placing the ground contacting structure into the housing;
• and
• secure the ground contacting structure in the housing;
• and
• a controller operatively coupled to the chassis, the controller configured to:
• receive instructions including an indication to tow an aircraft;
• and
• navigate the chassis to the aircraft and couple the chassis to the aircraft using the coupler by fusing signals from a plurality of sensors including at least two different types of sensors, navigating the chassis including:
• operating the drivetrain to cause the chassis to travel to a waypoint associated with an approximate location of the ground contacting structure of the aircraft using at least one sensor from a first subset of sensors of the plurality of sensors;
• detecting an identification tag coupled to the ground contacting structure using at least one sensor from a second subset of sensors of the plurality of sensors while at the waypoint, the second sensor being a different type of sensor from the first sensor;
• and
• sending signals, based on data from the at least one sensor from the second subset of sensors to the drivetrain to precisely maneuver the chassis relative to the ground contacting structure and to the coupler to engage the ground contacting structure.