Method and apparatus for controlling aircraft ground manoeuvres

Abstract

An aircraft is disclosed including a ground manoeuvre control unit for automatically controlling ground manoeuvres. The aircraft has control mechanisms such as a rudder, nose wheel steering, spoilers, wheel brakes and the like for controlling motion of the aircraft. The control unit is configured to receive lateral input demands concerning lateral motion of the aircraft (e.g. heading control) and longitudinal input demands concerning longitudinal motion of the aircraft (e.g. deceleration). The control unit passes on the input demands as output demands to the relevant control mechanisms of the aircraft with, if so required, a modification which prioritises one of the lateral input demand and longitudinal input demand based on the risk of a lateral runway excursion and the risk of a longitudinal runway excursion.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.