A method and system for estimating an angular deviation from a reference guidance axis, a position and a velocity of an aircraft. The system includes an offset collection module for collecting an offset measured by a measurement module, a position vector collection module for collecting a position vector measured by a position vector measurement module, a velocity vector collection module, a module for estimating the angular deviation of a reference guidance axis with respect to the approach axis towards the runway, for estimating the position of the aircraft with respect to the runway and for estimating the velocity of the aircraft with respect to the runway.

This disclosure is directed to sub-meter level navigation accuracy for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) using broadband communication signals, such as cellular long-term evolution (LTE) signals. A framework and methods are provided using a receiver and controller to produce at least one of carrier phase, code phase, and Doppler frequency measurements from received LTE signals. Single difference measurements may be used to remove clock bias. LTE ENodeB clock biases are initialized using the known initial position of the UAV. The measurements are fused via an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate the UAV position and integer ambiguities of the carrier phase single difference measurements. LTE signals can have different carrier frequencies and conventional algorithms do not estimate the integer ambiguities. Processes are described to detect cycle slip, where the carrier phase measurements from the LTE eNodeB multiple antenna ports are used to detect cycle slip.

Airborne LiDAR bathymetry systems and methods of use are provided. The airborne LiDAR bathymetry system can collect topographic data and bathymetric data at high altitudes. The airborne LiDAR bathymetry system has a receiver system, a detector system, and a laser transmission system.

The presently disclosed subject matter includes an active proximity system (APS) mountable on an unmanned autonomous vehicle (UxV), the APS comprising: one or more proximity sensors and a processing circuitry; the one or more proximity sensors are configured to sense one or more proximity signals, each of the signals is indicative of the presence of a respective emitter in proximity to the UxV; the processing circuitry is configured, responsive to a sensed proximity signal, to repeatedly: generate maneuvering instructions dedicated for causing the UxV to move and increase the distance between the UxV and the respective emitter; and then generate maneuvering instructions dedicated for causing the UxV to move and decrease the distance between the UxV and the respective emitter; and thereby maintain the UxV within a certain range from the respective emitter defined by the sensed proximity signal.

An example method for determining a mobile device position and orientation is provided. The method may include capturing a two-dimensional image of a surface including at least four markers, and determining a unit direction vector for each of the at least four markers based on an association between a pixel location of each of the at least four markers in the two-dimensional image. The method may further include determining apex angles between each pair of the unit direction vectors, and determining marker distances from the imaging sensor to each of the at least four markers via a first iterative process based on the apex angles. Additionally, the method may include determining the mobile device position with respect to the coordinate frame via a second iterative process based on the marker distances, the apex angles, and the coordinates of each of the at least four markers.

One or more processors obtain a first radio environment signature associated with an aerial vehicle (AV) and a second radio environment signature associated with a computing device. Responsive to determining that the first radio environment signature and the second radio environment signature satisfy a similarity criteria, the one or more processors generate a validation data object verifying one or more of (i) that a location of the AV substantially corresponds to a location of the computing device at a time associated with at least one of the first radio environment signature or the second radio environment signature, (ii) a AV delivery associated with the AV and the computing device, or (iii) a AV pickup associated with the AV and the computing device. The one or more processors store or provide validation information based on the validation data object.

A system for determining the position of an aircraft comprises an emitter arranged at the aircraft for emitting a signal, at least two receivers arranged at different locations for receiving the signal emitted by the emitter, and an evaluation device which is designed to determine an aircraft position based on the known positions of the receivers at the time of the reception of the signal and on a characteristic of the signal emitted by the emitter and received by the receivers. The invention proposes that at least one of the receivers is located above the aircraft, and that the evaluation means is designed to determine a vertical position (ALT) of the aircraft from the signal received by the receivers and the known positions of the receivers.

Embodiments include methods for estimating movement of an aerial user equipment (UE) by a first RAN node serving the aerial UE in a cell of the RAN. Such methods include determining initialization parameters for an interacting multiple-model (IMM) for movement of the aerial UE in the cell. The initialization parameters include a plurality of neighbor cells, in the RAN, in which positioning measurements should be performed for the aerial UE, and/or for at least one movement mode of the IMM, an initial state comprising a plurality of initial position estimates for the aerial UE. Such methods include determining a movement state for the aerial UE at a first time based on the initialization parameters and positioning measurements of the aerial UE that are performed in the cell and in at least a portion of the neighbor cells. Other embodiments include complementary methods for a second RAN node.

Techniques are disclosed for determining a true bearing angle from an airborne platform to a source of a radar signal. In an embodiment, a grid is generated based on a coarse range to, and angle-of-arrival of, an electromagnetic signal. The grid represents a geographic area thought to contain the emission source. A measured spatial angle is computed for each pulse of the signal received during a data collection interval. Hypothesized spatial angles are computed for a point in each grid box in the grid. A score is generated for each grid point based on the computed hypothesized spatial angles for the grid point and the measured spatial angles. The grid point having the lowest score is identified as a seed location and is used to launch a Nelder-Mead algorithm that converges on a point in the grid. A true bearing angle to the source of a radar angle is computed to the point provided by the Nelder-Mead algorithm.

Search points in a search space may be projected onto images from cameras imaging different parts of the search space. Subimages, corresponding to the projected search points, may be selected and processed to determine if a target object has been detected. Based on subimages in which target objects are detected, as well as orientation data from cameras capturing images from which the subimages were selected, positions of the target objects in the search space may be determined.