Patent ID: 8209072
Filing Date: 2012-06-26
Classification: G05D,G08G

Abstract:
1. A method to assist piloting an aircraft during a landing phase at an airport having a plurality of runways, the method comprising: a1) automatically determining, for each of the runways of the airport, the runway's orientation and coordinates of the runway's threshold; a2) repetitively computing, for each runway, the runway's threshold based on the coordinates and orientation determined for the runway; a3) automatically and repetitively checking whether a characteristic height, which depends on the current altitude of the aircraft and on the altitude of the airport, is located within a predetermined height-wise detection window, a4) repetitively computing for each runway, only when the Boolean value is set to 1, an angular difference between the orientation of the runway and a straight line passing through the current position of the aircraft; a5) computing, for each runway, a cumulative average of all computed angular differences; a6) comparing all computed cumulative averages with all other computed cumulative averages; a7) selecting a runway whose cumulative average is lowest according to the comparisons; b) repetitively determining the current longitudinal position of the aircraft in a reference frame linked to the selected runway; c) upon the aircraft passing the computed threshold of the selected runway: d) applying maximum braking to the aircraft while the determined longitudinal stopping position is greater than the length of the selected runway, wherein: the angular difference is computed for any runway of index k, by taking into account an orientation θAMk which is computed from the following expressions: λTHRk and μTHRk are the latitude and longitude coordinates of the threshold of the runway of index k; λAC and μAC are the current latitude and longitude coordinates of the aircraft; and R is the radius of Earth.