DETERMINATION OF RELATIVE POSITION WHILE LANDING

A system for determining the position and orientation of a landing area relative to an approaching vehicle is disclosed. The landing area has a plurality of target items disposed proximate to the landing area at known locations. The system includes a sensor on which is formed images of target items that are within a Field of View (FOV) of the sensor, a processor configured to receive the positions of the target items on the sensor, and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory stores the locations of the target items relative to the landing area and instructions that, when loaded into the processor and executed, cause the processor to determine a position and an orientation of the landing area relative to the vehicle based in part on the information received from the sensor and the locations of the target items.