Aircraft taxi routing

• US 10,699,588 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2017
• Issued: 06/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Marik, Karel, Macek, Karel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry, Hunter B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Martinez Borrero, Luis A
• Application Number:
  US15/845,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20190189018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 925 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64F 1/002 Taxiing aids
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3492 employing speed data or traffic data, e.g. real-time or historical traffic control systems for road vehicles involving transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/065 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. for taxiing or rolling

Abstract

Methods, devices, and systems for aircraft taxi routing are described herein. One device includes instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to receive a record of a plurality of historical routes taken by a plurality of aircraft through taxiways of an airport, receive an indication of a plurality of conditions particular to the airport, receive an indication of a starting point of a proposed route in the airport and an endpoint of the airport, wherein the starting point and the endpoint are associated with a proposed taxiing of an aircraft, determine a route between the starting point and the endpoint based on the plurality of historical routes and the plurality of conditions, and provide the determined route to an air traffic controller.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive a record of a plurality of historical routes taken by a plurality of aircraft through taxiways of an airport;

determine a tendency particular to an air traffic controller to use each of a plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport based on the plurality of historical routes;

receive a plurality of conditions particular to the airport;

receive a starting point of a proposed route in the airport and an endpoint of the proposed route in the airport, wherein the starting point of the proposed route in the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport are associated with a proposed taxiing of an aircraft;

determine a route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport based on the tendency particular to the air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport and the plurality of conditions; and

provide the determined route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport to the air traffic controller.

2. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to determine the historical routes using radar associated with the airport.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the determined route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport is longer than a route determined irrespective of the tendency particular to the air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport and the plurality of conditions.

4. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to provide the determined route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport to the air traffic controller via a display configured to provide air traffic control.

5. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to provide the determined route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport to the aircraft for which the taxiing is proposed.

6. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to determine the tendency particular to the air traffic controller based on a subset of the plurality of historical routes.

7. The medium of claim 3, wherein the route determined irrespective of the tendency particular to the air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport and the plurality of conditions is determined by a computing device based on a distance between the starting point and the endpoint.

8. The medium of claim 1, including instructions to:

receive feedback from the air traffic controller regarding the determined route between the starting point of the proposed route of the airport and the endpoint of the proposed route of the airport; and

generate a second determined route based on the feedback.

9. A computing device for aircraft taxi routing, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

determine a plurality of historical routes taken by a plurality of aircraft through taxiways of an airport by tracking the plurality of aircraft using radar over a period of time;

determine a tendency particular to an air traffic controller to use each of a plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport based on the plurality of historical routes;

receive a starting point of the airport and an endpoint of the airport, wherein the starting point of the airport and the endpoint of the airport are associated with a proposed taxiing of an aircraft;

receive a set of conditions particular to the airport and associated with a time of the proposed taxiing;

determine a route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport based on the tendency particular to the air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of segments of the taxiways of the airport and the set of conditions; and

display the determined route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport on an interface of the air traffic controller.

10. The computing device of claim 9, including instructions determine the route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport based, at least in part, on a subset of the historical routes traveled while under control of the air traffic controller.

11. The computing device of claim 9, including instructions to determine the route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport based on a plurality of attributes of the aircraft.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the attributes of the aircraft include a wingspan of the aircraft.

13. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of conditions particular to the airport include a current weather condition at the airport.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the set of conditions particular to the airport include a current visibility at the airport.

15. A method for aircraft taxi routing, comprising:

tracking a plurality of aircraft through a plurality of taxiway segments of an airport using radar over a period of time;

determining a plurality of historical routes taken by the plurality of aircraft based on the tracking, each of the plurality of historical routes comprising a respective subset of the plurality of taxiway segments;

determining a tendency particular to an air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of taxiway segments based on the plurality of historical routes;

receiving a starting point of the airport and an endpoint of the airport, wherein the starting point of the airport and the endpoint of the airport are associated with a proposed taxiing of an aircraft;

determining a route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport based, at least in part, on the tendency particular to the air traffic controller to use each of the plurality of taxiway segments, the determined route comprising a particular subset of the plurality of taxiway segments; and

displaying the determined route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport on an interface of an air traffic controller.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining the route includes multiplying a weight assigned to each taxiway segment by a respective indirection factor representing the respective tendency to use each of the plurality of taxiway segments.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport includes determining the respective indirection factor based on a correlation with the respective taxiway segment and the plurality of historical routes.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein determining the route includes determining the respective indirection factor based on a user input.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the airport comprises a first quantity of taxiway segments, wherein determining the route from the starting point of the airport to the endpoint of the airport includes combining at least two adjoining parallel taxiway segments in a map of the airport such that the map of the airport comprises a second quantity of taxiway segments, and wherein the second quantity is less than the first quantity.