Patent ID: 9561821
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: B62D,B64F

Claim:
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 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, by at least one processor, for each scanning plane, respective real-time geometric properties, the respective real-time geometric properties including at least data indicative of ranges between scanned points in the respective group and a platform horizontal plane; c) determining, by the at least one processor, 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, by the at least one processor, the leading vehicle so as to maintain the steering-angle, as determined in said step c), within a certain acceptable range.