Ground operations and advanced runway awareness and advisory system

• US 20050015202A1
• Filed: 05/19/2004
• Published: 01/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Poe, John J., Gremmert, Scott R., Conner, Kevin J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,587,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0008 with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/065 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. for taxiing or rolling

Abstract

A device, method and computer program product for locating aircraft with respect to airport runways and taxiways, determining if a conflict exists between an aircraft having operating the invention and another aircraft, and generating and annunciating conflict awareness advisories as a function of determining that a conflict exists.

Claims

1. An airport position situational awareness computer program residing on a computer usable storage medium, the computer program comprising:

computer-readable program code means for receiving one or more signals representative of current aircraft position, orientation and ground speed information;

computer-readable program code means for accessing stored runway survey information as a function of the current aircraft position information;

computer-readable program code means for determining a current aircraft position relative to the runway survey information as a function of the current aircraft position information;

computer-readable program code means for receiving one or more communications broadcasts containing current position information of objects external to an aircraft receiving the one or more communications broadcasts;

computer-readable program code means for predicting a potential conflict between the aircraft receiving the one or more communications broadcasts and one or more of the external objects;

computer-readable program code means for determining a potential conflict condition advisory as a function of determining a potential conflict;

computer-readable program code means for determining a priority of the potential conflict condition advisory relative to other advisories and alerts; and

computer-readable program code means for generating the potential conflict condition advisory as a function of both determining the potential conflict and determining the priority of the potential conflict condition advisory relative to other advisories and alerts.

2. The computer program of claim 1, further comprising computer-readable program code means for indicating the current position of the installation aircraft relative to selected runway survey information as a function of the current aircraft position, orientation and ground speed information, including:

computer-readable program code means for generating a graphical depiction of the selected runway survey information for display on a cockpit display device; and

computer-readable program code means for generating a plot the current aircraft position, orientation and ground speed information relative to the graphical depiction of the selected runway survey information for display on the cockpit display device.

3. The computer program of claim 2, further comprising computer-readable program code means for generating a plot of the current position information of the external objects relative to the graphical depiction of the selected runway survey information for display on the cockpit display device.

4. The computer program of claim 3 wherein:

the computer-readable program code means for receiving communications broadcasts containing current position information of objects external to an aircraft receiving the communications broadcasts further comprises computer-readable program code means for receiving communications broadcasts containing one or both of current orientation and current ground speed information of the one or more external objects; and

wherein the computer-readable program code means for predicting a potential conflict further comprises;

computer-readable program code means for determining a velocity vector of the aircraft receiving the one or more communications broadcasts,

computer-readable program code means for determining a velocity vector of the aircraft receiving of one or more of the external objects; and

computer-readable program code means for determining an intersection of the velocity vector of the aircraft receiving the one or more communications broadcasts and the velocity vector of one or more of the external objects.

5. The computer program of claim 1, further comprising computer-readable program code means for generating a communications broadcast containing one or more of the current aircraft position information, the current aircraft orientation information and the current aircraft ground speed information.

6. A conflict awareness computer program product, comprising:

a computer-usable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for configuring a computer processor, the computer program product comprising;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to receive at intervals one or more instrument signals reporting updated state parameter information of an installation aircraft;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to retrieve stored runway survey information as a function of the updated installation aircraft state parameter information;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to identify a runway as a function of the updated installation aircraft state parameter information and the runway survey information;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to determine that the installation aircraft has encountered the identified runway;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to determine an orientation of the installation aircraft relative to the identified runway as a function of the updated installation aircraft state parameter information and the runway survey information;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a runway awareness advisory as a function of;

the updated installation aircraft state parameter information, and the orientation of the installation aircraft relative to the identified runway;

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to determine that a different aircraft external to the installation aircraft is operating on the identified runway; and

computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a conflict awareness advisory as a function of;

determining that a different aircraft external to the installation aircraft is operating on the identified runway.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to receive one or more communications broadcasts containing aircraft state parameter information of the different external aircraft;

and

wherein the computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to determine that a different aircraft external to the installation aircraft is operating on the identified runway further comprises computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to compare the state parameter information of the installation aircraft with the state parameter information of the different external aircraft.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 wherein the updated installation aircraft state parameter information further comprises:

position information of the installation aircraft,

ground speed information of the installation aircraft, and

one of track and heading information of the installation aircraft.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 wherein the updated installation aircraft state parameter information further comprises:

position information of the installation aircraft,

ground speed information of the installation aircraft, and

one of track and heading information of the installation aircraft.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a conflict awareness advisory further comprises computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to suppress the runway awareness advisory.

11. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a communications broadcast containing the updated installation aircraft state parameter information.

12. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate at intervals and as a function of the updated flight parameter information a graphical depiction of the updated flight parameter information relative to the runway survey information for display on a cockpit display device.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the installation aircraft state parameter information further comprises:

position information of the installation aircraft,

ground speed information of the installation aircraft, and

one of track and heading information of the installation aircraft; and

wherein the computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a graphical depiction of the updated flight parameter information relative to the runway survey information further comprises computer-readable code configured to cause a computer processor to generate a graphical depiction of one or more of;

the installation aircraft position information relative to the runway survey information,

the installation aircraft ground speed information relative to the runway survey information, and

one of the installation aircraft track information and the installation aircraft heading information relative to the runway survey information.

14. The computer program product of claim 6, further comprising a computer processor structured to receive and operate the computer-readable code.

15. An airport conflict awareness apparatus, comprising:

a searchable database of runway survey data;

a processor structured for receiving samples of one or more signals reporting position data of an installation aircraft, receiving samples of one or more signals reporting position data of an aircraft external to the installation aircraft, and for retrieving runway survey data from the database;

one or more algorithms executable by the processor for determining simultaneous operation of the installation aircraft and the external aircraft on a common runway as a function of the position data of the installation aircraft, the position data of the external aircraft, and the runway survey data; and

one or more algorithms executable by the processor for generating as a function of determining simultaneous operation of the installation aircraft and the external aircraft on a common runway a conflict awareness advisory.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising one or more algorithms for generating on a cockpit audio device an annunciation signal representative of the conflict awareness advisory.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising one or more algorithms for generating a radio frequency broadcast of one or more signals reporting the position data of the installation aircraft.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising one or more algorithms executable by the processor for generating as a function of one or more of the installation aircraft position data and the retrieved runway survey data a graphical depiction for display on a cockpit display screen, the one or more algorithms for generating the graphical depiction comprising:

one or more algorithms for retrieving at least a portion of the runway survey data as a function of the installation aircraft position data,

one or more algorithms for generating a graphical depiction of the retrieved runway survey data, and

one or more algorithms for generating a graphical depiction of the installation aircraft position data relative to the graphical depiction of the retrieved runway survey data.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising one or more algorithms executable by the processor for generating a graphical depiction of the external aircraft position data relative to the graphical depiction of the retrieved runway survey data.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the processor is further structured for receiving the samples of the signals reporting position data of the aircraft external as radio frequency signals.