Patent ID: 9248920
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: B62D,B64F

Claim Text:
1. A method of determining a steering-angle between a leading vehicle and an aircraft, wherein the leading vehicle is connected to the aircraft and is configured to lead the aircraft on the ground, the leading vehicle comprising a platform and one or more scanners that are positioned on the platform, the method comprising: a) obtaining scanning information of at one or more scanning planes of an underbelly of the aircraft, the scanning information being generated by the one or more scanners, wherein the scanning information of each of the one or more scanning planes comprises a respective group of scanned points of the aircraft's underbelly; b) determining, for each scanning plane, respective real-time geometric properties that comprise a respective real-time parabolic image, the respective real-time geometric properties including at least data indicative of ranges between scanned points in the respective group and a certain fixed point on the platform; c) determining, based on the respective real-time geometric properties, a steering-angle between a longitudinal axis of the leading vehicle and a longitudinal axis of the aircraft; and d) controlling the leading vehicle so as to maintain the steering-angle, as determined in said step c), within a certain acceptable range.