Back to results
US 6,637,063 B1Granted
Beacon docking system for automatically aligning a passenger loading bridge to a doorway of an aircraft
AssigneeDEW Engineering and Development Limited
InventorsNeil Hutton, Rami Ibrahim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a system and method for automatically aligning an end of a passenger loading bridge with a doorway of an aircraft. A beacon is transmitted from the doorway of the aircraft. The beacon is sensed and from the sensed beacon a direction for moving of the end of the passenger loading bridge is determined. The passenger loading bridge is then moved according to the determined direction. The process is iterated until the docking of the bridge to the aircraft is completed.
Claims18
A system for automatically aligning one end of a passenger loading bridge to an aircraft having a doorway, comprising:
- a transmitter disposed aboard the aircraft for providing an electromagnetic signal for use in aligning the one end of the passenger loading bridge to the doorway of the aircraft;
- a receiver disposed aboard the passenger loading bridge for receiving the electromagnetic signal transmitted from the transmitter and for providing an electrical output signal relating to the electromagnetic signal;
- a bridge control circuit in operative communication with the receiver, for receiving the electrical output signal provided from the receiver, for determining a next movement of the one end of the passenger loading bridge in a direction toward the doorway of the aircraft based upon the electrical output signal, and for providing a control signal relating to the determined next movement;
- and
- a drive mechanism in communication with the bridge control circuit for receiving the control signal provided from the bridge control circuit and for driving the one end of the passenger loading bridge in the determined direction toward the doorway of the aircraft.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.