METHOD OF GUIDING AIRCRAFT TO GROUND OBJECT Russian patent published in 2014 - IPC F41G7/22 

FIELD: physics, navigation.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to autonomous aircraft navigation systems, particularly aircraft navigation systems comprising on-board radar equipment which guides the aircraft to ground objects. Guiding an aircraft to a ground object includes measuring the viewing angle of the ground object in the horizontal plane relative to the direction of the ground velocity of the aircraft, the angular velocity of the line of vision of the ground object in the horizontal plane, the distance from the aircraft to the ground object, the flight velocity of the aircraft and acceleration thereof in the horizontal plane. The method also includes measuring the current value of the deviation angle of the line of vision of the ground object from the direction of the velocity vector of the aircraft, the current value of the viewing angle of the ground object in the vertical plane, the current value of the inclination angle of the velocity vector of the aircraft in the vertical plane, the current value of the angular velocity of the line of vision of the ground object in the vertical plane and the current value of acceleration of the aircraft in the vertical plane. The method includes calculating the current value of the deviation angle of the projection of the line of vision of the ground object on the horizontal plane from the projection of the direction of the velocity vector of the aircraft on the same plane. The obtained results are used to control flight in the horizontal and vertical planes to enable stabilisation of the linear azimuthal resolution of the radar image of the ground object generated by on-board synthetic aperture radar, stabilisation of resolution of said radar image on the horizontal range, and such that the direction of the velocity vector of the aircraft in the vertical plane at each moment in time matches the direction towards the point of intersection of the perpendicular to the horizontal projection of the line of vision of the ground object, passing through said object and belonging to the horizontal plane, with the vertical plane to which the velocity vector of the aircraft belongs. The value of deviations (discrepancies) of current angle measurements, as well as the current inclination angle of the line of vision of the ground object from the required values is estimated and trajectory control signals for the aircraft in the horizontal and vertical planes, which enable to eliminate said deviations, are generated.

EFFECT: high accuracy of guiding an aircraft to given ground objects using on-board synthetic aperture radar.

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