Autonomous operation of passenger boarding bridges

A system for automatically determining a distance to an object in a two-dimensional image of an aircraft operating area, the system comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
• acquire at least one image captured by at least one camera of the aircraft operating area;
• detect the object in the at least one image, wherein an identifier of the object and a component of the object are visible in the at least one image;
• acquire a dimension of the component of the object based on the identifier;
• determine a size of the component in the at least one image;
• and
• determine the distance between the component of the object and the at least one camera based on the dimension of the component and the size of the component in the at least one image.

A system comprising:

• a passenger boarding bridge configured to operate in an aircraft operating area;
• a passenger boarding bridge camera coupled to the passenger boarding bridge, the passenger boarding bridge camera configured to acquire a first image including an engine of an aircraft within the aircraft operating area;
• an exterior gate camera configured to (a) couple to a gate area of an airport proximate the aircraft operating area and (b) acquire a second image including a tail number on a tail of the aircraft;
• one or more processors configured to:
• detect the engine in the first image;
• determine a size of the engine in the first image;
• detect the tail number in the second image;
• acquire a dimension of the engine based on the tail number;
• determine a distance between the engine and the passenger boarding bridge based on the dimension of the engine and the size of the engine in the first image.