Patent ID: 7788034
Filing Date: 2010-08-31
Classification: G01C,G05D

Abstract:
1. A method for determining a rendezvous intercept position of a first vehicle and a target vehicle, the method comprising: a) designating an arbitrary point along a projected travel path of the target vehicle as a first intercept position; b) computing a time to travel by the first vehicle to the first intercept position; c) comparing the time to travel by the first vehicle to the first intercept position to a time to travel by the target vehicle to the first intercept position; d) determining that the time to travel by the first vehicle differs from the time to travel by the target vehicle by more than a threshold amount; e) designating a different intercept position along the projected travel path of the target vehicle re-computing the time to travel by the first vehicle to the different intercept position, and re-comparing the time to travel by the first vehicle to a time to travel by the target vehicle to the different intercept position; and f) iteratively repeating step e) until a difference of the time to travel by the target vehicle and the time to travel by the first vehicle is less than the threshold amount.