Aircraft performance computation

• US 10,109,117 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2015
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Fournier, Francois, Le Reun, Heloise, Boyer, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H
• Application Number:
  US14/803,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20160019732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,193 Days
• Field of Search: 701 342, 701400, 701 3- 4, 701 14, 701408-409, 701 328, 701 334, 701 11, 348143-144, 382103, 382190, 382209, 345945, 340972, 340973, 340974, 340977, 34042515, 244 751, 244 76 R
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0075 Adaptations for use of electronic flight bags in aircraft; Supports therefor in the cockpit
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/00 Registering or indicating the working of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

A computer implemented method of computing performance for an aircraft, comprises the steps of collecting data from a plurality of data sources comprising data sources of avionics type and external data sources of non-avionics type; processing the data collected in an electronic device of EFB or electronic flight bag type; and undertaking the performance computation. Developments describe the extraction of data from images or audio streams; the manipulation of data of alarm, INOP, aircraft status, air conditioning and anti-ice, runway, ATIS, meteorological and/or NOTAM type; the interfaces with an FPS or flight planning system and/or a CMS or centralized maintenance system. System aspects and software aspects are described.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of computing performance for an aircraft, comprising:

collecting data from a plurality of data sources including avionics type data sources and external non-avionics type data sources with an electronic flight bag (EFB) type device, wherein the step of collecting data comprises;

a step of acquiring with an image capture device of the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device at least one image of at least one viewing screen in a cockpit of the aircraft, the cockpit having one or more viewing screens, and

a step of extracting data from the at least one image acquired in the cockpit utilizing optical character recognition to generate extracted data with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device;

processing the extracted data collected in the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device; and

performing automatically a performance computation of the extracted data for the aircraft with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of collecting data further comprising a step of extracting data from an audio stream.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the collected data comprising one or more data comprising alarm, INOP, aircraft status, air conditioning and anti-ice, runway, ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service), meteorological and/or NOTAM (Notice To Airmen) type.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processing step further comprises one or more operations from among operations of interpretation, filtering and conversion of the extracted data.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the avionics data sources being transmitted by interface equipment of the aircraft from data arising from an FPS (flight planning system) and/or a CMS (centralized maintenance system).

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the external data sources being transmitted by one or more ground servers and the external data comprising meteorological and/or NOTAM notices type data.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the external data sources furthermore comprising data arising from the Internet network.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the operation of interpreting the collected data being performed by means of an avionics protocols model.

10. The method according to claim 5, wherein the operation of converting the collected data being performed by means of a predefined conversion file.

2. A system for an extraction of data from one or more images acquired in a cockpit of an aircraft, said system comprising means for implementing:

a collection of data from a plurality of data sources including avionics type data sources and external non-avionics type data sources, wherein the collection of data comprises an acquisition with an image capture device of an electronic flight bag (EFB) type device of at least one image of at least one viewing screen in the cockpit of the aircraft, the cockpit having one or more viewing screens, and an extraction of the data from the at least one image acquired in the cockpit;

a recognition of characters within the acquired a least one image with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device;

a data processing system for the data collected in the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device; and

an automatic computation of a performance of the aircraft based on a processing of the data collected by the data processing system.

11. The system according to claim 2, further comprising means for implementing:

a reception of a correction or of the validation of one or more items of data by a pilot prior to the performance computation.