Patent ID: 9366538
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: G01C,G05D

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method of estimating a course of an aircraft comprising: receiving a time series of location data from at least one of a global positioning system device or an inertial navigation system device on an aircraft indicating a plurality of locations along a route taken by the aircraft and calculating a time series of course estimate data from the time series of location data; defining a trajectory function from the time series of course estimate data for representing a track of the aircraft; fitting the trajectory function to at least a portion of the time series of location data; defining a position that identifies the location of the aircraft along the route; projecting the defined position onto the trajectory function; estimating a course of the aircraft as being a tangent of the trajectory function at the projected defined position; and outputting for display the course of the aircraft estimated as being the tangent of the trajectory function at the projected defined position.