Planning and GNSS-Based Monitoring of On-Ground Aircraft Movements

Ferenc Weiczer, Lars Holmstrom

Abstract:	This paper describes theory and applications of a concept providing tools for motion planning and real- time monitoring of aircraft ground movements. Monitoring is based on the so-called “GNSS transponder” and a unique high-capacity GNSS Self- organizing Time Division, Multiple Access (STDMA) VHF data-link, By combining AutoCAD and a simulator program solving the vehicle’s motion equations, a new software package, called the PathPlanner, provides visualized simulation allowing the user to obtain both reference and corresponding resulting paths for wheeled vehicles, such as airplanes, cars, fuel trucks. Elements of relevance for the vehicle path are the trajectory of a reference point on the vehicle (e.g. the nose-gear of an aircraft), the wheel tracks, and the boundary of the sweep surface of the motion. The interactive software provides tools for assembling/generating and tracking reference trajectories. A unique and very prominent feature is the capability of generating minimum-length reference trajectories connecting start and goal positions where also the orientation of the vehicle is specified. This is done by taking the vehicle speed and the dynamic and kinematic constraints on its steering mechanism into account in order to ensure that the vehicle is able to stay on the prescribed track. Monitoring the motion of mobile platforms fitted with GNSS transponders is accomplished by using the STDMA VHF data-link providing DGPS positions at a rate of once every second. Receiving vehicle positions including orientation, the PathPlanner simultaneously animates and logs the vehicle motion.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 1996 Loews Santa Monica Hotel Santa Monica, CA
Pages:	579 - 584
Cite this article:	Weiczer, Ferenc, Holmstrom, Lars, "Planning and GNSS-Based Monitoring of On-Ground Aircraft Movements," Proceedings of the 1996 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Santa Monica, CA, January 1996, pp. 579-584.
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