Air traffic and weather data aggregating and de-conflicting

• US 10,529,239 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Esposito, Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): Mancho, Ronnie M
• Application Number:
  US15/237,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20180047294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 701 14
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0004 Transmission of traffic-related information to or from an aircraft airborne radio transmission systems in general H04B7/185; airborne wireless networks H04W84/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0008 with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service

Abstract

In some examples, a system is configured to receive composite air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft, the composite air traffic radio surveillance data comprising air traffic radio surveillance data from the one or more relaying aircraft and air traffic radio surveillance data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft. The system is further configured to receive data from one or more non-aircraft data sources, and aggregate and de-conflict the composite air traffic radio surveillance data and the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources, thereby generating an aggregated and de-conflicted data set. The system is further configured to generate an output based at least in part on the aggregated and de-conflicted data set.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a communication interface; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive, via the communication interface, a set of data comprising composite air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft and composite weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft, wherein the composite air traffic radio surveillance data comprises air traffic radio surveillance data from the one or more relaying aircraft and air traffic radio surveillance data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, wherein the composite weather data comprises weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft and weather data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive the set of data at a time when at least one of the one or more additional aircraft are out of range of any ground-based station,

receive, via the communication interface, data from one or more non-aircraft data sources,

aggregate and de-conflict the set of data and the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources to generate an aggregated and de-conflicted data set, wherein to aggregate and de-conflict the set of data, the one or more processors are configured to;

identify a data conflict above a nominal threshold of difference between a first set of data from a first source and a second set of data from a second source, wherein the first source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources, and wherein the second source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources;

identify one of the first set of data from the first source and the second set of data from the second source as a more reliable data set;

determine, based on the identification of the more reliable data set, a de-conflicted data set to resolve the data conflict; and

include the de-conflicted data set in the aggregated and de-conflicted data set; and

generate an output based at least in part on the aggregated and de-conflicted data set.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources comprises weather data, the aggregated and de-conflicted data set comprising data from the weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources comprises air traffic data, the aggregated and de-conflicted data set comprising data from the air traffic data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the air traffic data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources comprises air traffic data from an air traffic control authority.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the air traffic data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources comprises air traffic data from a flight tracking service.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected region, and

generate the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected region.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected aircraft, and

generate the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected aircraft.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected aircraft fleet operator, and

generate the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected aircraft fleet operator.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

identify a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected air traffic control authority, and

generate the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected air traffic control authority.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the received composite air traffic surveillance data comprises at least one of:

a latitude, a longitude, a flight identifier, a range, a bearing, a ground track, a ground speed, and an altitude, for at least one of the relaying aircraft and at least one of the additional aircraft.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the de-conflicted data set by at least identifying that both of the first and second data sets are of nominal reliability, and using a combination of the first and second data sets as the de-conflicted data set.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to receive the set of data via one or more datalink channels.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to generate the output within a nominal latency of receiving the set of data from the one or more relaying aircraft.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a set of data comprising composite air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft and composite weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft, wherein the composite air traffic radio surveillance data comprises air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft and air traffic radio surveillance data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, wherein the composite weather data comprises weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft and weather data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, and wherein at least one of the one or more additional aircraft are out of range of a ground-based station at a time when the set of data is received from the one or more additional aircraft by the one or more relaying aircraft;

receiving, with one or more processors, data from one or more non-aircraft data sources;

aggregating and de-conflicting, with the one or more processors, the set of data and the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources to generate an aggregated and de-conflicted data set, wherein aggregating and de-conflicting comprises;

identifying a data conflict above a nominal threshold of difference between a first set of data from a first source and a second set of data from a second source, wherein the first source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources, and wherein the second source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources;

identifying one of the first set of data from the first source and the second set of data from the second source as a more reliable data set;

determining, based on the identification of the more reliable data set, a de-conflicted data set to resolve the data conflict; and

including the de-conflicted data set in the aggregated and de-conflicted data set; and

generating, with the one or more processors, an output based at least in part on the aggregated and de-conflicted data set.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources comprises air traffic data and weather data, the method further comprising:

aggregating and de-conflicting the set of data from the one or more relaying aircraft and the air traffic radio surveillance data and the weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources, the aggregated and de-conflicted data set comprising data from the set of data from the one or more relaying aircraft, data from the air traffic data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources, and data from the weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected region; and

generating the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected region.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected aircraft; and

generating the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected aircraft.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying a portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for a selected aircraft fleet operator; and

generating the output based on the portion of the aggregated and de-conflicted data set that provides coverage for the selected aircraft fleet operator.

16. A system comprising:

means for receiving a set of data comprising composite air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft and composite weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft, wherein the composite air traffic radio surveillance data comprises air traffic radio surveillance data from one or more relaying aircraft and air traffic radio surveillance data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, wherein the composite weather data comprises weather data from the one or more relaying aircraft and weather data relayed by the one or more relaying aircraft from one or more additional aircraft, and wherein at least one of the one or more additional aircraft are out of range of a ground-based station at a time when the set of data is received from the one or more additional aircraft by the one or more relaying aircraft;

means for receiving data from one or more non-aircraft data sources;

means for aggregating and de-conflicting the set of data and the data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources to generate an aggregated and de-conflicted data set, wherein the means for aggregating and de-conflicting comprises;

means for identifying a data conflict above a nominal threshold of difference between a first set of data from a first source and a second set of data from a second source, wherein the first source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources, and wherein the second source comprises a relaying aircraft of the one or more relaying aircraft, an additional aircraft of the one or more additional aircraft, or a non-aircraft data source of the one or more non-aircraft data sources;

means for identifying one of the first set of data from the first source and the second set of data from the second source as a more reliable data set;

means for determining, based on the identification of the more reliable data set, a de-conflicted data set to resolve the data conflict; and

means for including the de-conflicted data set in the aggregated and de-conflicted data set; and

means for generating an output based at least in part on the aggregated and de-conflicted data set.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the system further comprises:

means for receiving air traffic data and weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources; and

means for aggregating and de-conflicting the set of data from the one or more relaying aircraft and the air traffic radio surveillance data and the weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources, such that the aggregated and de-conflicted data set comprises data from the set of data from the one or more relaying aircraft, data from the air traffic data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources, and data from the weather data from the one or more non-aircraft data sources.