The use of automated landing systems has been a standard practice for commercial aircraft for many years. The infrastructure at major airports can ensure the safe navigation of aircraft through the Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), however with smaller and regional airports the infrastructure is largely absent.
New research out of Technical University of Munich (TUM) and TU Braunschweig in Germany has had major breakthroughs in automated landing using vision assisted navigation – functioning without the need for ground-based support or systems. The project, called “C2Land”, uses an optical reference system – a camera in the normal visible range, and an infrared camera which provides data and information under poor conditions.
The development of custom image processing software allows the system to determine where the aircraft is relative to the runway based on the data received from the cameras. As autopilot uses GPS signal to navigate, they are susceptible to measurement inaccuracies – mostly due to atmospheric conditions. This new camera technology increases the accuracy of GPS systems.
“The cameras already recognize the runway at a great distance from the airport. The system then guides the aircraft through the landing approach on a completely automatic basis and lands it precisely on the runway’s centerline,” says test pilot Thomas Wimmer.
You can read more about these great breakthroughs here