Real Time Mission Planning

• US 20110283285A1
• Filed: 05/14/2010
• Published: 11/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Pigg, Paul Edward Riley, Bieniawski, Stefan Richard, Wunsch, Donald Coolidge II, Robinette, Paul Michael, Saad, Emad William, Vian, John Lyle
• Granted Patent: US 9,064,222 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/102
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

Abstract

The different advantageous embodiments provide a system comprising a number of computers, a graphical user interface, first program code stored on the computer, and second program code stored on the computer. The graphical user interface is executed by a computer in the number of computers. The computer is configured to run the first program code to define a mission using a number of mission elements. The computer is configured to run the second program code to generate instructions for a number of assets to execute the mission and monitor the number of assets during execution of the mission.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a number of computers;

a graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface is executed by a computer in the number of computers;

first program code stored on the computer, wherein the computer is configured to run the first program code to define a mission using a number of mission elements; and

second program code stored on the computer, wherein the computer is configured to run the second program code to generate instructions for a number of assets to execute the mission and monitor the number of assets during execution of the mission.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of assets include at least one of a vehicle, sensor, charging station, and machine.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of mission elements is stored in a mission element library.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the number of mission elements is generated by the first program code.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program code communicates with the second program code over a network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program code communicates with the second program code using extensible markup language remote procedure call.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first program code is stored on a first computer in the number of computers and the second program code is stored on a second computer in the number of computers, wherein the first computer is physically located in a remote location from the second computer, and wherein the first computer and the second computer communicate over a network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a first computer from the number of computers runs the second program code and a plurality of computers from the number of computers run multiple instances of the first program code, wherein the first computer is not one of the plurality of computers, and wherein the first computer communicates with the plurality of computers allowing multiple users to perform at least one of defining, modifying, executing, and monitoring missions simultaneously.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface displays a mission definition in a Gantt chart format for a user to define and monitor the mission.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein each mission element includes a number of mission tasks,and wherein the system defines, updates, executes and monitors multiple missions simultaneously.

11. A method for mission planning, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computer, a user definition of a mission;

generating a mission program using the user definition and a number of mission elements;

assigning the number of mission elements to a number of assets;

controlling execution of the number of mission elements by the number of assets; and

monitoring the number of assets executing the mission.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving messages from the number of assets during execution of the mission;

determining whether a mission reconfiguration is needed; and

responsive to a determination that the mission reconfiguration is needed, generating a modified mission using the messages received.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the mission reconfiguration is not needed, determining whether the mission is complete.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the user definition is received by the computer using a mission planner client.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the mission script is generated by a mission management framework.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of mission elements is generated by a mission planner server and selected by the mission management framework for assignment to the number of assets.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein a user uses a graphical user interface and a number of devices to input coordinate parameters to the number of mission elements.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the receiving, generating, assigning, controlling, and monitoring steps are performed in real-time.

19. A computer program product for managing information for flights, the computer program product comprising:

a computer recordable storage medium;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for receiving a user definition of a mission;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for generating a mission script using the user definition and a number of mission elements;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for assigning the number of mission elements to a number of assets;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for generating instructions for the number of assets to execute the mission using the number of mission elements; and

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for monitoring the number of assets executing the mission.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for receiving messages from the number of assets during execution of the mission;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for determining whether a mission reconfiguration is needed; and

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to a determination that the mission reconfiguration is needed, for generating a modified mission using the messages received.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to a determination that the mission reconfiguration is not needed, for determining whether the mission is complete.

22. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the user definition is received by the computer using a mission planner client.

23. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the mission script is generated by a mission management framework.

24. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the number of mission elements is generated by a mission planner server and selected by the mission management framework for assignment to the number of assets.