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US 6,742,210 B2Granted
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
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Abstract
Disclosure 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.
Claims9
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 wirelessly transmitting a first electromagnetic signal for use in aligning the one end of the passenger loading bridge to the doorway of the aircraft;
- a transceiver for receiving the first electromagnetic signal transmitted from the transmitter and for providing a second electromagnetic signal relating to the received first electromagnetic signal;
- a processor in electrical communication with the transceiver, for determining a next movement of at least one of the aircraft and the one end of the passenger loading bridge for relatively moving the one end of the passenger loading bridge in a direction toward the doorway of the aircraft, for producing an electrical output signal indicative of the determined next movement and relating to the second electromagnetic signal, and for providing the electrical output signal to the transceiver;
- and
- a receiver disposed aboard the passenger loading bridge for receiving at least one of the first electromagnetic signal and the second electromagnetic signal and for producing a second electrical output signal relating to the at least one of the first electromagnetic signal and the second electromagnetic signal.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.