Redundant Positional Data Determination for Automatic Landing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automatic landing systems for aircraft lack redundancy in positional data determination, leading to potential errors and safety concerns during landing, especially in unmanned aircraft where manual intervention is limited.
Innovation Solution
A redundant automatic landing system that utilizes two independent position or range measuring devices and a sensor device to generate and confirm hypotheses for the aircraft's position and landmark data, ensuring high-integrity positional determination by comparing and correlating measurements, and selecting the most accurate data for flight control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant position measuring devices are used, then reliability of positional data determination is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the position determination function into multiple independent measuring devices (first position measuring device and second position measuring device), each providing separate measurements that are then evaluated independently to determine the final position data
Solution Approach 2:
A control device acts as an intermediary that receives measurements from multiple position measuring devices, generates hypotheses about landmark positions, and uses sensor data to confirm or discard these hypotheses, thereby selecting the most reliable position data without requiring direct integration of all measuring devices
2Measurement precision
If multiple independent position measuring devices are used, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control device uses sensor data as feedback to evaluate the hypotheses generated from different position measuring devices. The sensor data confirms or discards hypotheses about landmark positions, providing a validation mechanism that ensures measurement precision while managing system complexity through intelligent evaluation rather than simple redundancy
3Reliability
If hypothesis confirmation using sensor data is implemented, then reliability of positional data is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control device generates hypotheses about landmark positions in advance based on position data from multiple measuring devices, before actual landing occurs. This preliminary hypothesis generation allows for efficient validation during the critical landing phase, reducing the time required for real-time decision-making
Data Source
AI summary
An automatic landing system contains a control device for providing positional data for controlling an aircraft, a first position or range measuring device for detecting first positional data of the aircraft, a second position or range measuring device for detecting second positional data of the aircraft, and a sensor device for detecting sensor data from which a direction in which a landmark is located and/or a distance of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined. The control device may be configured to generate, based on the first positional data, a first hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark and, based on the second positional data, a second hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark. Moreover, the control device may be configure to confirm or discard the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, using the sensor data detected by the sensor device.