The Boeing Company
Aircraft positioning on a taxiway

Abstract:

Systems, methods, and computer-readable media storing instructions for determining cross-track error of an aircraft on a taxiway are disclosed herein. The disclosed techniques capture electronic images of a portion of the taxiway using cameras or other electronic imaging devices mounted on the aircraft, pre-process the electronic images to generate regularized image data, apply a trained multichannel neural network model to the regularized image data to generate a preliminary estimate of cross-track error relative to the centerline of the taxiway, and post-process the preliminary estimate to generate an estimate of cross-track error of the aircraft. Further embodiments adjust a GPS-based location estimate of the aircraft using the estimate of cross-track error or adjust the heading of the aircraft based upon the estimate of cross-track error.