Functional monitor for flight management system

• US 20070142981A1
• Filed: 12/21/2006
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Deker, Guy, Gutierrez-Castaneda, Manuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• 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: G05B 23/0256 injecting test signals and analyzing monitored process response, e.g. injecting the test signal while interrupting the normal operation of the monitored system; superimposing the test signal onto a control signal during normal operation of the monitored system

Abstract

The invention relates to a flight management system for aircraft which makes it possible to carry out tests of the results of the calculations of the main functions for formulating the flight plans and trajectories of the aircraft making it possible to anticipate errors in this formulation, to present them to the crew as a function of criticality criteria, to store them so as to be communicated and processed by the maintenance teams.

Claims

1. A device for aiding navigation of an aircraft comprising at least one module for formulating flight plans and trajectories of said aircraft, further comprising a test module for testing the data at the output of one of said modules with respect to conditions determined by subsequent phases of formulation of said flight plan and trajectories.

2. The device for aiding navigation of claim 1, wherein said test module comprises a library of tests to be executed each in a given configuration of the aircraft and of its environment.

3. The device for aiding navigation of claim 1, further comprising a database of the results breaching conditions at the output of said test module and of the contexts of occurrence of said results.

4. The device for aiding navigation of claim 1, further comprising a generator of messages of report of the results breaching conditions at the output of said test module.

5. The device for aiding navigation of claim 4, wherein said generator comprises a function for parameterizing sortings and filterings to be performed at the output of the generator and at the input of an interface for presenting said messages to the crew.

6. The device for aiding navigation of claim 4, further comprising elements for archiving said messages according to a download protocol.

7. The device for aiding navigation of claim 4, further comprising elements for correlating the messages at the output of the generator with those originating from other devices for monitoring of the aircraft.

8. A method for aiding navigation of an aircraft comprising at least one task for formulating flight plans and trajectories of said aircraft, further comprising tasks for testing the positioning of the data at the output of one of said tasks with respect to conditions determined by subsequent phases of formulation of said flight plan and trajectories.

9. The method for aiding navigation of claim 8, wherein a test task is triggered when conditions are satisfied, said conditions being verified in a cyclic manner at the input of the test task.

10. The method for aiding navigation of claim 8, further comprising a task for recording the results breaching conditions at the output of said test task and the contexts of occurrence of said results.

11. The method for aiding navigation of claim 8, further comprising a task for generating messages of report of the results breaching conditions at the output of said test task.

12. The method for aiding navigation of claim 11, wherein said generating task comprises a function for parameterizing sortings and filterings to be performed at the output of said generating task and at the input of a task for presenting said messages to the crew.

13. The method for aiding navigation of claim 11, further comprising a task for archiving said messages according to a download protocol.

14. The method for aiding navigation of claim 11, further comprising a task for correlating the messages at the output of the generating task with those originating from other tasks for monitoring of the aircraft.