Creation of optimized terrain databases

• US 20070255729A1
• Filed: 09/21/2005
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: Jeppesen GmbH (The Boeing Co.), Jeppesen Sanderson Incorporated (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Schiefele, Jens, Fox, Michael, Houk, Richard, Launer, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,612 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3826 Terrain data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/387 Organisation of map data, e.g. version management or database structures
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 3/20 with adaptation to the measurement of the height of an object
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 7/04 involving a vehicle which moves along the profile to be traced
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/918 Location
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/919 Geographic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/92 Navigation

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating an optimized terrain database identify several regions, including test regions that are established from the identified regions. A first set of terrain data is received for a first test region. The first set of terrain data is compared to a second set of terrain data to determine a set of quality attributes. The quality attributes are used to determine a safety margin for the first test region. The safety margin is applied to other regions having the same or similar characteristics to the first test region. Safety margins are either generated for or applied to all other regions. All regions are then compiled into an area-wide terrain database, up to and including a worldwide database.

Claims

1. A method for generating an optimized terrain database, comprising:

establishing a test region that has known quality characteristics;

receiving first and second sets of terrain data for the test region, wherein each set of terrain data includes a plurality of data points;

determining quality attributes for the second set of terrain data for the test region;

establishing a safety margin based on the quality attributes determined for the second set of terrain data; and

applying the safety margin to the first set of terrain data to create an optimized terrain model for the test region.

2. A method defined in claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a second region separate from the test region; and

applying the safety margin to a first set of terrain data for the second region to create an optimized terrain database for the second region.

3. A method defined in claim 2, wherein the test region and the second region have similar characteristics.

4. A method defined in claim 3, wherein the test region and the second region have a similar type of terrain.

5. A method defined in claim 2, further comprising compiling sets of optimized terrain data from a plurality of regions into an area-wide terrain database.

6. A method defined in claim 1, wherein the quality attributes comprise an elevation error margin distribution.

7. A method defined in claim 6, wherein establishing the safety margin comprises:

receiving a confidence level; and

determining an elevation within the error margin distribution that correlates to the confidence level.

8. A method defined in claim 1, wherein the first set of terrain data is generated from a first collection method, the second set of terrain data is generated from a second collection method, and the second collection method has a greater accuracy that the first collection method.

9. A system for generating an optimal terrain database, comprising:

a region/test region selection module that selects one or more regions and one or more test regions;

a quality attribute module that generates quality attributes for one or more sets of terrain data for a test region selected by the region/test region selection module;

a safety margin module that determines a safety margin from the quality attributes for the one or more sets of terrain data for the test region; and

a correlation module that correlates the test region to one or more other regions.

10. A system defined in claim 9, wherein the region/test region selection module selects the one or more regions according to characteristics of the one or more regions.

11. A system defined in claim 10, wherein the characteristics comprise a type of terrain.

12. A system defined in claim 9, wherein the quality attribute module compares a first set of terrain data for the test region and a second set of terrain data for the test region.

13. A system defined in claim 12, wherein the quality attribute module generates an error margin distribution of elevation error margins.

14. A system defined in claim 13, wherein the safety margin module determines the safety margin from the error margin distribution.

15. A system defined in claim 9, wherein the safety margin module receives a confidence level and generates the safety margin elevation based on the confidence level.

16. A method for creating an area-wide terrain database, comprising:

establishing a plurality of regions;

establishing one or more test regions from the plurality of regions;

generating quality attributes for a first test region;

determining a safety margin for the first test region from the quality attributes, wherein the safety margin correlates to a predetermined confidence level;

applying the safety margin to a second region that does not include quality attributes, wherein the first test region and the second region have similar characteristics;

repeating the above steps until a safety margin has been applied to each of the plurality of regions; and

compiling data from all the regions into the area-wide terrain database.

17. A method defined in claim 16, wherein the area-wide terrain database substantially encompasses the entire world.

18. A method defined in claim 16, wherein generating quality attributes for the first test region comprises:

comparing a first set of terrain data to a second set of terrain data for the first test region; and

generating an error margin distribution of elevation errors for the first test region.

19. A method defined in claim 18, wherein determining the safety margin for the first test region comprises determining an elevation value in the error margin distribution that correlates with the confidence level.

20. A method defined in claim 16, wherein the safety margin for the first test region is only applied to the second region if similar collection methods were used to derive terrain data for the first test region and the second region.

21. A computer-readable medium forming an optimized terrain database having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:

a first set of terrain data; and

a safety envelope applied to the first set of terrain data, wherein the safety envelope is created by comparing the first set of terrain data to a second set of terrain data.

22. A computer-readable medium defined in claim 21, wherein:

the first set of terrain data includes data for a plurality of defined regions within the optimized terrain database;

the first and second sets of terrain data are compared for a first defined region; and

the safety envelope is applied to the first set of terrain data in a second defined region, provided that the first and second defined regions have similar characteristics.