Methods and apparatus for detecting airport terminal area congestion
First Claim
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1. A method for evaluating landing conditions at an airport, the method comprising:
- obtaining, by an avionics system onboard a first aircraft, aircraft position data associated with a plurality of aircraft located within a range of the airport; and
computing a terminal congestion coefficient for the airport, based on the aircraft position data, by;
identifying a group of candidate aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, wherein the group of candidate aircraft is associated with a subset of the aircraft position data satisfying predefined criteria;
calculating a first time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft converting from airborne to surface traffic, and a second time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft in the range; and
computing a terminal congestion coefficient, based on the first time value and the second time value;
wherein the terminal congestion coefficient indicates a level of air traffic within the range of the airport.
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Abstract
A method for evaluating landing conditions at an airport is provided. The method obtains, by an avionics system onboard a first aircraft, aircraft position data associated with a plurality of aircraft located within a range of the airport; and computes a terminal congestion coefficient for the airport, based on the aircraft position data, wherein the terminal congestion coefficient indicates a level of air traffic within the range of the airport.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for evaluating landing conditions at an airport, the method comprising:
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obtaining, by an avionics system onboard a first aircraft, aircraft position data associated with a plurality of aircraft located within a range of the airport; and computing a terminal congestion coefficient for the airport, based on the aircraft position data, by; identifying a group of candidate aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, wherein the group of candidate aircraft is associated with a subset of the aircraft position data satisfying predefined criteria; calculating a first time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft converting from airborne to surface traffic, and a second time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft in the range; and computing a terminal congestion coefficient, based on the first time value and the second time value; wherein the terminal congestion coefficient indicates a level of air traffic within the range of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system onboard an aircraft, for evaluating landing conditions at an airport, the system comprising:
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a system memory element; an aircraft transponder, configured to receive a plurality of aircraft transponder broadcast messages transmitted from a plurality of aircraft located within a range of the airport; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the system memory element and the aircraft transponder, the at least one processor configured to; determine aircraft position data associated with the plurality of aircraft located within a range of the airport, based on the plurality of aircraft transponder broadcast messages; compute a terminal congestion coefficient for the airport, based on the aircraft position data, by; identifying a group of candidate aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, wherein the group of candidate aircraft is associated with a subset of the aircraft position data satisfying predefined criteria; calculating a first time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft converting from airborne to surface traffic, and a second time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft in the range; and computing a terminal congestion coefficient, based on the first time value and the second time value; wherein the terminal congestion coefficient indicates a level of air traffic within the range of the airport; and determine an optimal speed value and an optimal altitude value, based on the terminal congestion coefficient. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium containing instructions thereon, which, when executed by a processor, perform a method comprising:
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receiving, via a first transponder, a plurality of aircraft transponder messages comprising position data for a plurality of aircraft located in a range of an airport; computing, by an aircraft onboard computer system, a congestion coefficient for the airport, by; identifying a group of candidate aircraft of the plurality of aircraft, wherein the group of candidate aircraft is associated with a subset of the aircraft position data satisfying predefined criteria; calculating a first time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft converting from airborne to surface traffic, and a second time value for time spent by each of the group of candidate aircraft in the range; and computing the congestion coefficient, based on the first time value and the second time value, wherein the congestion coefficient indicates a level of air traffic within the range of the airport; and determining congestion conditions associated with the airport, based on the congestion coefficient. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification