A method for aiding aircraft navigation, comprising estimating the aircraft's navigation state using a fusion filter.

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for aiding aircraft navigation, comprising estimating the aircraft's navigation state using a fusion filter based on a prior navigation state obtained from measurements provided by an inertial measurement unit. The method includes a recalibration mode in which the aircraft is in a hover phase and in which the navigation state estimation by the fusion filter is also performed using a fixed, unmeasured, non-inertial zero-speed data point. Figure 1 for the abstract

Claims

- when a covariance (Cov), associated with the estimated navigation state (S2), is greater than a threshold characteristic of an uncertainty on the estimated navigation state (S2), said covariance (Cov) being produced by the fusion filter (FILT).

7. Method according to claim 4, the aircraft (A) comprising at least one camera (3) configured to acquire an image of the aircraft's environment, the method comprising in the navigation mode (M1) an estimation of the aircraft's movement from at least two acquired images, the hover phase being detected when the estimated movement is below a threshold.

8. A method according to claim 5, wherein in the navigation mode (M1), the method includes an estimation of the motion from inertial measurements, the hover phase being detected when the estimated motion is less than a threshold.

9. A method according to any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein in the recalibration mode (M2), the method includes a deactivation of the hover observation (COM') to switch from the recalibration mode (M2) to the navigation mode (M1) when the covariance (Cov) associated with the estimated navigation state (S2) is less than a threshold.

10. Navigation device comprising a processing unit (2) configured to implement a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

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