Patent ID: 7937190

Claim:
A system for automated control of a refueling boom coupled to a tanker aircraft, comprising: a first inertial measurement unit (IMU) providing inertial measurements for the tanker aircraft; a first GPS receiver providing a GPS location for the tanker aircraft; a second IMU providing inertial measurements for a receiver aircraft; a second GPS receiver providing a GPS location for the receiver aircraft; and a processor adapted to: determine an IMU-derived position estimate for the tanker aircraft using the inertial measurements from the first IMU; determine an IMU-derived position estimate for the receiver aircraft using the inertial measurements from the second IMU; determine an IMU relative difference between the IMU-derived position estimates; determine a GPS relative difference between the GPS locations; determine an absolute difference between the GPS location for IMU-derived position estimate for the tanker aircraft and the GPS location for the tanker aircraft; filter the absolute difference, the IMU relative difference, and the GPS relative difference to derive both an absolute navigation state error for the tanker aircraft as well as a relative navigation state error between the tanker aircraft and the receiver aircraft; update an inertial navigation state for the tanker aircraft and an inertial navigation state for the receiver aircraft using the absolute and relative navigation state errors; and control the refueling boom relative to the receiver aircraft based upon the updated inertial navigation states.