Patents by Inventor Ronald E. Heberlein

Ronald E. Heberlein has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9541763
    Abstract: An active HUD boresight alignment system for correcting a boresight of a HUD in an aircraft relative to an aircraft boresight is described. The system has an aircraft IRU, a HUD angular orientation detector and a detector. The aircraft IRU is rigidly coupled with the aircraft and configured to define an aircraft boresight indicative of a three axis angular orientation of the aircraft. The HUD angular orientation detector is rigidly arranged relative to at least one component of the HUD in the aircraft, and configured to determine a HUD boresight indicative of a three axis angular orientation of the HUD. The processor is coupled with the aircraft IRU and the HUD angular orientation detector and configured to determine a boresight angular offset of the HUD boresight to the aircraft boresight for at least one axis of the three axis angular orientation, and to correct for the boresight angular offset based on the determined boresight angular offset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Ronald E. Heberlein, Byron B. Roethler, Lincoln J. Burns
  • Patent number: 9489575
    Abstract: A system and method for providing sensor-based navigation correction of a GPS-sensed position of an aircraft includes a synthetic vision system. The synthetic vision system captures a visual image of the surrounding area via image sensors and generates a location model based on the image. A georeference engine compares the location model to static high-resolution terrain and obstacle databases to determine a corrected position of the aircraft. The georeference engine then updates the GPS-sensed position with the corrected position, transmitting the corrected position to the combiner. The combiner generates for display an enhanced image based on the visual image and the corrected position of the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Donald J. Whalen, Brad A. Walker, Scott E. Schultz, Ronald E. Heberlein, David I. Han