System and method for rendering an aircraft cockpit display for use with ATC conditional clearance instructions

• US 10,157,617 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2017
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Shamasundar, Raghu
• Primary Examiner(s): Casillashernandez, Omar
• Application Number:
  US15/466,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20180277116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• Field of Search: 340971, 340945, 701 14, 342 29, 342 33, 342 36
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 43/00 Arrangements or adaptations of instruments arrangements of cameras B64D47/08; aeronautical measuring instruments per se G01C
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A method for providing a flight display to an aircrew of an ownship aircraft includes receiving, at a radio communications module of the ownship aircraft, a voice transmission on an air traffic control first radio frequency from an air traffic controller, the voice transmission comprising a conditional clearance, wherein the condition clearance comprises a condition instruction and a clearance instruction, transcribing, using voice recognition software installed on the ownship aircraft, the voice transmission into an electronic, textual format, thereby generating a digital transmission record, and automatically, displaying, on a display device of the ownship aircraft, the condition instruction using a multi-format symbology and in a multi-step sequence over time, and waiting for and detecting an aircrew input corresponding to the clearance.

Claims

1. A method for providing a flight display to an aircrew of an ownship aircraft, the method comprising the steps of:

automatically determining a geographical position and an altitude of the ownship aircraft;

receiving, at a radio communications module of the ownship aircraft, a voice transmission on an air traffic control first radio frequency from an air traffic controller, the voice transmission comprising a conditional clearance, wherein the conditional clearance comprises a condition instruction and a clearance instruction;

automatically, and without input from the aircrew, identifying the condition instruction and the clearance instruction from the voice transmission by automatically, and without input from the aircrew, transcribing, using voice recognition software installed on the ownship aircraft, the voice transmission into an electronic format, thereby generating a digital transmission record; and

automatically, and without input from the aircrew, parsing the digital transmission record to identify the condition instruction and the clearance instruction;

automatically, and without input from the aircrew, displaying, on a display device of the ownship aircraft, the condition instruction using a multi-format symbology and in a multi-step sequence over time, wherein the multi-step sequence over time is performed as follows;

1) upon parsing the digital transmission record, displaying an initial format condition instruction symbology, with criticality level comprising a color code mechanism indicative of a value of the condition instruction being greater than a pre- determined threshold value;

2) upon reaching the pre-determined threshold value and after displaying the initial format condition instruction symbology, displaying a threshold format condition instruction symbology, different from the initial format condition instruction symbology, with criticality level comprising a color code mechanism indicative of the value of the condition instruction being equal to the pre-determined threshold value;

3) upon reaching the condition value and after displaying the threshold format condition instruction symbology, displaying a condition value format condition instruction symbology, different from either the initial format condition instruction symbology or the threshold format condition instruction symbology, with criticality level comprising a color code mechanism indicative of the value of the condition instruction being equal to an ownship aircraft value;

subsequent to displaying the condition value format condition instruction symbology, waiting for and detecting an aircrew input corresponding to the clearance instruction; and

if the aircrew input corresponding to the clearance instruction is detected by the ownship aircraft, performing a further step in the multi-step sequence as follows;

4a) upon detecting the aircrew input corresponding to the clearance instruction, displaying an accepted condition instruction symbology, different from any of the initial format condition instruction symbology, the threshold format condition instruction symbology, or the condition value format condition instruction symbology, with criticality level comprising a color code mechanism indicative of the aircrew having performed the clearance instruction, and thereafter removing the accepted condition instruction symbology from the display device, if, however, the aircrew input corresponding to the clearance instruction is not detected by the ownship aircraft after a waiting period of time, performing a further step in the multi-step sequence as follows;

4b) displaying an alert/missed condition instruction symbology, different from any of the initial format condition instruction symbology, the threshold format condition instruction symbology, the condition value format condition instruction symbology, or the accepted condition instruction symbology, with criticality level comprising a color code mechanism indicative of the aircrew having missed performing the clearance instruction and alerting the aircrew to perform the clearance instruction as soon as possible.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically determining the geographical position and the altitude of the ownship aircraft is performed by a flight management system (FMS) of the ownship aircraft.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition instruction is selected from the group consisting of:

an altitude condition comprising an altitude value that is either greater or less than the altitude of the ownship aircraft, a position condition comprising a position value configured as a straight-line distance between the geographical position of the ownship aircraft and a navigation waypoint indicated by the position condition, and a time condition comprising a time value configured as a future clock time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the initial format condition instruction symbology is displayed when:

for an altitude condition, the difference between the altitude value and the altitude of the ownship aircraft is greater than a pre-determined threshold vertical distance;

for a position condition, the position value is greater than a predetermined horizontal distance; and

for a time condition, the time between the future clock time and the current clock time is greater than a predetermined amount of time.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the threshold format condition instruction symbology is displayed when:

for an altitude condition, the difference between the altitude value and the altitude of the ownship aircraft is equal to the predetermined threshold vertical distance;

for a position condition, the position value is equal to the predetermined horizontal distance; and

for a time condition, the time between the future clock time and the current clock time is equal to the predetermined amount of time.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the condition value format condition instruction symbology is displayed when:

for an altitude condition, zero difference between the attitude value and the altitude of the ownship aircraft;

for a position condition, the position value is equal to zero; and

for a time condition, zero time between the future clock time and the current clock time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the clearance instruction is selected from the group consisting of:

a direct-to-waypoint instruction, an altitude instruction, and an air traffic control radio communications instruction.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of waiting for and detecting the aircrew input corresponding to the clearance instruction comprises:

for a direct to waypoint instruction, waiting for and detecting an aircrew input causing the ownship aircraft to fly direct to the navigation waypoint;

for an altitude instruction, waiting for and detecting an aircrew input causing the ownship aircraft to ascend or descend to the altitude value; and

for an air traffic control radio communications instruction, waiting for and detecting an aircrew input causing the radio communications module to change frequencies.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-format symbology comprises the symbols “

C”

, “

CP”

, and “

CA”

representing Conditional Clearance, Condition Pending, and Condition Accepted, respectively.