Aircraft automatic landing system

An automatic landing system for determining spacial position and guidance of movement of an aircraft comprising:

• a light emitter mountable on one of an aircraft and ground station consisting of three lights of preselected spectral band fixed in a triangular optical relationship and receiver means for receiving landing trajectory signals from the other of an aircraft and a ground station;
• a receiver mountable on the other of an aircraft and ground station comprising an electro optical sensor means including camera means having a spectral filter matched to the spectral band of the three lights for detecting light emanating from the three lights and an iris for receiving light from the spectral filter to regulate the intensity of the light detected by the spectral filter, and lens means for changing the field of view of the spectral filter and iris, said camera means producing an output signal correlated with light detected by the spectral filter;
• frame grabber means for receiving the output signal from the camera means and providing an output;
• and
• an image data processor receiving the output of the frame grabber means for controlling the iris and the lens means and for determining relative position and orientation of the light emitter in all six degrees of freedom based solely on the light detected from the three lights;
• guidance means connected to the image data processor for evaluating disturbances and reconstructing a landing trajectory based upon deviations from a desired optical landing trajectory and for developing an output relative thereto;
• and
• means responsive to the output of the guidance means for guiding the aircraft to a desired landing.