Automatic aircraft monitoring and operator preferred rerouting system and method

• US 10,339,816 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2014
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Sharma, Vivek, Brown, John Allin
• Primary Examiner(s): Dager, Jonathan M
• Application Number:
  US14/317,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20150379875A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,831 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

An automatic aircraft monitoring and proposed rerouting system includes at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory is in electronic communication with the at least one processor. The at least one memory includes programming code configured to be executed by the at least one processor. The programming code is configured to automatically monitor at least one aircraft and to automatically provide a proposed flight reroute for the at least one aircraft.

Claims

1. An automatic monitoring and proposed in-flight rerouting system for an airborne aircraft traveling to a destination via a current route, comprising:

at least one computer processor; and

at least one memory storing a plurality of components of an application, the plurality of components executable by the at least one computer processor and comprising;

a route optimization function executable to;

(i) receive updated information selected from updated airline information, updated aircraft information, updated airspace information, and updated traffic information; and

(ii) responsive to receiving the updated information, automatically and proactively compute at least a first in-flight reroute to the destination for the airborne aircraft, by at least in part communicating with an operational control system specific to an airline associated with the airborne aircraft in order to consider reservations, airframe usage and movement, crew movement, and high-value passenger connection data;

a conflict detection function executable to automatically check the first in-flight reroute against traffic trajectories of other aircraft and airspace constraints for conflicts; and

a conflict resolution function executable to, upon detection of one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute by the conflict detection function, automatically and proactively compute a second in-flight reroute in accordance with preferences selected from airline preferences, flight crew preferences, and air navigation service provider preferences, in order to resolve the detected one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is selected from a cost optimal reroute, a fuel optimal reroute, a time optimal reroute, an environmentally beneficial reroute, an airspace constrained reroute, and an airport constrained reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is characterized by a resource usage improvement relative to the current route, wherein the resource usage improvement is selected from cost saved, fuel saved, time saved, environmental impact, airspace impact, and airport impact;

wherein upon no conflict being detected in the second in-flight reroute by the conflict detection function, and further upon receipt of clearance from air traffic control to reroute the airborne aircraft based on the second in-flight reroute, the airborne aircraft is rerouted to the destination based on the second in-flight reroute, wherein the rerouted aircraft arrives at the destination after traveling according to the second in-flight reroute, which causes the resource usage improvement to be attained.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the route optimization function automatically and proactively computes the first in-flight reroute based on dynamically changing airline information, dynamically changing aircraft information, dynamically changing airspace information, or dynamically changing traffic information.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one memory further stores an airline function executable to output the dynamically changing airline information, which comprises at least one aircraft flight to optimize, flight information, an airline preference, a customer request, a customer report, or an optimization trigger.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one memory further stores a flight planning function executable to output the dynamically changing aircraft information, which comprises a flight state, a flight intent, a reroute request, or a flight-crew preference.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one memory further stores an airspace function executable to output the dynamically changing airspace information, which comprises an atmospheric condition, an airspace constraint, an airport adaptation, or an airspace adaptation.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one memory further stores a traffic function executable to output the dynamically changing traffic information, which comprises a flight state of at least one other aircraft, and a flight intent of the at least one other aircraft.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium including programming code of an application, the programming code configured to perform an operation to reroute an airborne aircraft traveling to a destination via a current route, the operation comprising:

receiving updated information selected from updated airline information, updated aircraft information, updated airspace information, and updated traffic information, wherein the updated information is received by a route optimization function of the application, the application having a plurality of components including the route optimization function, a conflict detection function, and a conflict resolution function;

responsive to receiving the updated information, automatically and proactively computing at least a first in-flight reroute to the destination for the airborne aircraft, by the route optimization function and by at least in part communicating with an operational control system specific to an airline associated with the airborne aircraft in order to consider reservations, airframe usage and movement, crew movement, and high-value passenger connection data;

subsequent to computing the first in-flight reroute to the destination, automatically checking, by the conflict detection function, the first in-flight reroute against traffic trajectories of other aircraft and airspace constraints for conflicts; and

upon detecting, by the conflict detection function, one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute, automatically and proactively computing a second in-flight reroute by operation of at least one computer processor when executing the conflict resolution function, and in accordance with preferences selected from airline preferences, flight crew preferences, and air navigation service provider preferences, in order to resolve the detected one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is selected from a cost optimal reroute, a fuel optimal reroute, a time optimal reroute, an environmentally beneficial reroute, an airspace constrained reroute, and an airport constrained reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is characterized by a resource usage improvement relative to the current route, wherein the resource usage improvement is selected from cost saved, fuel saved, time saved, environmental impact, airspace impact, and airport impact;

wherein upon no conflict being detected in the second in-flight reroute by the conflict detection function, and further upon receipt of clearance from air traffic control to reroute the airborne aircraft based on the second in-flight reroute, the airborne aircraft is rerouted to the destination based on the second in-flight reroute, wherein the rerouted aircraft arrives at the destination after traveling according to the second in-flight reroute, which causes the resource usage improvement to be attained.

8. A computer-implemented method of automatically computing an in-flight reroute to a destination for an airborne aircraft traveling to the destination via a current route, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving updated information selected from updated airline information, updated aircraft information, updated airspace information, and updated traffic information;

wherein the updated information is received by a route optimization function of an application, the application having a plurality of components including the route optimization function, a conflict detection function, and a conflict resolution function;

responsive to receiving the updated information, automatically and proactively computing at least a first in-flight reroute to the destination for the airborne aircraft, by the route optimization function and by at least in part communicating with an operational control system specific to an airline associated with the airborne aircraft in order to consider reservations, airframe usage and movement, crew movement, and high-value passenger connection data;

subsequent to computing the first in-flight reroute to the destination, automatically checking, by the conflict detection function, the first in-flight reroute against traffic trajectories of other aircraft and airspace constraints for conflicts; and

upon detecting, by the conflict detection function, one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute, automatically and proactively computing a second in-flight reroute by operation of at least one computer processor when executing the conflict resolution function, and in accordance with preferences selected from airline preferences, flight crew preferences, and air navigation service provider preferences, in order to resolve the detected one or more conflicts in the first in-flight reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is selected from a cost optimal reroute, a fuel optimal reroute, a time optimal reroute, an environmentally beneficial reroute, an airspace constrained reroute, and an airport constrained reroute, wherein the second in-flight reroute is characterized by a resource usage improvement relative to the current route, wherein the resource usage improvement is selected from cost saved, fuel saved, time saved, environmental impact, airspace impact, and airport impact;

wherein upon no conflict being detected in the second in-flight reroute by the conflict detection function, and further upon receipt of clearance from air traffic control to reroute the airborne aircraft based on the second in-flight reroute, the airborne aircraft is rerouted to the destination based on the second in-flight reroute, wherein the rerouted aircraft arrives at the destination after traveling according to the second in-flight reroute, which causes the resource usage improvement to be attained.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein automatically computing the second in-flight reroute further comprises automatically providing the second in-flight reroute for the airborne aircraft directly to the airborne aircraft or directly to at least one airline of the airborne aircraft.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the second in-flight reroute is automatically and proactively computed based on dynamically changing airline information, dynamically changing aircraft information, dynamically changing airspace information, or dynamically changing traffic information.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the airline information comprises at least one aircraft flight to optimize, flight information, an airline preference, a customer request, a customer report, or an optimization trigger.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the aircraft information comprises a flight state, a flight intent, a reroute request, or a flight-crew preference.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the airspace information comprises an atmosphere condition, an airspace constraint, an airport adaptation, or an airspace adaptation.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the traffic information comprises a flight state of at least one other aircraft, and a flight intent of the at least one other aircraft.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the resource usage improvement is determined and output, wherein the second in-flight reroute is computed based on one or more constraints specific to an airspace selected from oceanic, polar, and remote airspaces, the one or more constraints characterizing a minimum required measure of aircraft separation, that is greater than for airspaces not selected from oceanic, polar, and remote airspaces, wherein the minimum required measure is greater due to communication and surveillance being more restricted in measure relative to that for the airspaces not selected from oceanic, polar, and remote airspaces.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the second in-flight reroute is computed based further on both:

(i) newly activated airspace and (ii) unanticipated deactivation of one or more restrictions;

wherein the second in-flight reroute is automatically and proactively computed based on dynamically changing airline information, dynamically changing aircraft information, dynamically changing airspace information, and dynamically changing traffic information, wherein the plurality of components further includes an airline function and a flight planning function.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the dynamically changing airline information is output by the airline function and comprises an aircraft flight to optimize, flight information, an airline preference, a customer request, a customer report, and an optimization trigger;

wherein the dynamically changing aircraft information is output by the flight planning function comprises a flight state, a flight intent, a reroute request, and a flight-crew preference.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of components further includes an airspace function and a traffic function;

wherein the dynamically changing airspace information is output by the airspace function and comprises an atmosphere condition, an airspace constraint, an airport adaptation, and an airspace adaptation;

wherein the dynamically changing traffic information is output by the traffic function and comprises a flight state of at least one other aircraft, and a flight intent of the at least one other aircraft.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of components further includes a communication function, configuration function, and an operator function;

wherein the resource usage improvement of the second in-flight reroute is output by the communication function;

wherein the application is reconfigurable for a plurality of distinct airlines via the configuration function;

wherein performance of the application is analyzed via the operator function;

wherein automatically computing the second in-flight reroute further comprises automatically providing the second in-flight reroute for the airborne aircraft, in respective instances;

(i) directly to the airborne aircraft and (ii) directly to at least one airline of the airborne aircraft.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the first in-flight reroute is computed based on the updated airline information, the updated aircraft information, the updated airspace information, and the updated traffic information;

wherein the second in-flight reroute is computed based on the airline preferences, the flight crew preferences, and the air navigation service provider preferences;

wherein the computed second in-flight reroute comprises, in respective instances, a cost optimal reroute, a fuel optimal reroute, a time optimal reroute, an environmentally beneficial reroute, an airspace constrained reroute, and an airport constrained reroute;

wherein the second in-flight reroute includes a change in each of a lateral path of the airborne aircraft, a flight altitude of the airborne aircraft, and a flight speed of the airborne aircraft;

wherein the resource usage improvement comprises, in respective instances, cost saved, fuel saved, time saved, environmental impact, airspace impact, and airport impact.