Gec Avionics Limited

George Brown

Christopher J Tucker

A correlation processor arrangement is used to guide an airborne vehicle along a path precisely to a predetermined destination. Guidance is divided into three distinct phases, and during each phase the position of the vehicle is verified by matching the view of its surroundings with stored reference data representing the expected fields of view. During the first navigation phase the stored data consists of predetermined terrain areas. During the second detection phase the destination is acquired, and during the third homing phase the view of the approaching destination is used as the stored reference data.

Processor arrangement

A guidance method which enables a moving body to be guided to a predetermined location by allowing the body to view its surroundings and to compare the viewed scene with a reference pattern stored on the body. A number of individual reference patterns are stored, and each reference pattern corresponds to an area of the surroundings which is very much smaller than the field of view and thus the body identifies its position by correlating its field of view with one of the reference patterns. To enable the body to identify its position, even if it deviates from an expected path, a number of reference patterns are laterally displaced from the expected path. The extent of the lateral displacements reduces with decreasing distance from a predetermined location to which the body is to be guided.

Growing community of inventors

Benfleet, United Kingdom

George Brown