Automated passenger boarding bridge alignment system and method with manual confirmation of aircraft doorway position

A method of automatically aligning an aircraft-engaging end of a passenger boarding bridge to a doorway disposed along a lateral surface of an aircraft, comprising:

• capturing an image of a portion of the lateral surface using an imager disposed at a location that is remote from the aircraft;
• processing data relating to the captured image to identify a feature that is indicative of a location of the doorway;
• determining a location of the doorway in dependence upon the identified feature;
• formatting the data relating to the captured image so as to provide an image for display to a user aboard the aircraft and containing a human intelligible indication of the determined location of the doorway;
• using a display device disposed aboard the aircraft, displaying to the user aboard the aircraft the formatted data in the form of an image containing the human intelligible indication of the determined location of the doorway;
• and,
• in dependence upon receiving an indication from the user aboard the aircraft that the determined location of the doorway is an actual location of the doorway, aligning automatically the passenger boarding bridge to the doorway at the determined location of the doorway.

A system for automatically aligning an aircraft-engaging end of a passenger boarding bridge with a doorway of an aircraft, comprising:

• an imager disposed at a location remote from the aircraft for capturing an image of the lateral surface of the aircraft and for providing image data relating thereto;
• a first receiver disposed aboard the aircraft for receiving a first signal including the image data;
• a processor for processing the image data to determine a location of the doorway and to format the image data for display, so as to provide a human intelligible indication of the determined location of the doorway;
• a display device disposed aboard the aircraft and in communication with the processor, the display device for receiving the formatted image data from the processor and for displaying to the user aboard the aircraft the formatted image data in a human intelligible form;
• a user interface disposed aboard the aircraft for receiving an input signal from the user that is indicative of one of a go command and a no-go command for automatically aligning the passenger boarding bridge, and for providing data relating to the input signal;
• a transmitter disposed aboard the aircraft and in communication with the user interface, the transmitter for receiving the data relating to the input signal and for transmitting a second signal including the data relating to the input signal;
• and,
• a bridge controller for receiving the second signal and for initiating automated alignment of the passenger boarding bridge when the second signal is indicative of a go command and for disabling automated alignment of the passenger boarding bridge when the second signal is indicative of a no-go command.