PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15763360
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-12
Patent Classification: ["014", "071100"]

Abstract:
The present invention provides an improved method and apparatus for automatically aligning and connecting a passenger boarding bridge (PBB) with the passenger door of an aircraft or other vessel. A sensory suite module includes cameras and sensors to scan the apron for obstacles and identify an aircraft based on external features. The sensory suite module also includes one or more high-precision active laser line profilers to detect the vertical and lower edges of an aircraft door. A controller module provides precise control and movement of the distal end of the PBB and guides the distal end of the PBB to the passenger door. The system can be activated by a remote triggering panel module.

Claim (Index 32):
A method of connecting a passenger boarding bridge with an aircraft passenger door of an aircraft comprising of the steps of:\n a) scanning the apron or other defined area for obstacles and hazards before arrival of the aircraft, b) scanning physical characteristics of the aircraft to identify the type or model, c) comparing the identity of the aircraft with airport schedule data, d) determining whether the aircraft is properly parked, e) scanning an aircraft fuselage to detect a physical gap between the aircraft passenger door and the aircraft fuselage, wherein a laser profiler is used to detect the physical gap between the aircraft passenger door and the aircraft fuselage and wherein software filters are used to account for fog, rain or snow, f) computing the shortest path to move an attaching end of the passenger boarding bridge to the aircraft passenger door, g) driving the attaching end of the passenger boarding bridge to the aircraft passenger door, h) bringing the passenger boarding bridge within contact or substantially within contact of the aircraft fuselage.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 8.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.68056
- Patent Class: 14.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['10505092', '14379099', '10394242', '14428824', '11519968']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6012817402551137
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5396246091757249
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.5951160271471748
- Mean Citation Score: 208.581796
- Max Citation Score: 220.88838
- Similarity Product: 182.59904342177867

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test