Redundant Determination of Positional Data for an Automatic Landing System

A drone configured with a flight landing system, wherein the fight landing system comprises:

• a control device configured to provide positional data for controlling the aircraft;
• a first position or range measuring device configured to detect first positional data of the aircraft;
• a second position or range measuring device configured to detect second positional data of the aircraft;
• and
• a sensor device configured to detect sensor data from which at least one of a direction in which a landmark is located and a range of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined,
• wherein the control device is configured to generate a first hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark on the basis of the first positional data and a second hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark on the basis of the second positional data,
• wherein the control device is configured to either confirm or discard the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, using the sensor data detected by the sensor device, and
• wherein the control device is configured to determine that only positional data, on which a confirmed hypothesis is based, is to be used to control the aircraft.

A method for determining positional data of an aircraft for an automatic landing system of the aircraft, the method comprising the steps:

• detecting, by a first position or range measuring device of the landing system, first positional data of the aircraft;
• detecting, by a second position or range measuring device of the landing system, second positional data of the aircraft;
• detecting, by a sensor device of the landing system, sensor data from which at least one of a direction in which a landmark is located and a range of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined;
• generating, by a control unit of the landing system, a first hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark based on the first positional data;
• generating, by the control unit, a second hypothesis for the determined direction or range of the landmark based on the second positional data;
• confirming or discarding, by the control unit, the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, on the basis of the sensor data detected by the sensor device;
• and
• determining, by the control unit, that only positional data, on which a confirmed hypothesis is based, is to be used to control the aircraft.