DATABASE AUGMENTED SURVEILLANCE

• US 20120303252A1
• Filed: 04/24/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avidyne Corporation
• Original Assignee: Avidyne Corporation
• Inventors: Schwinn, Daniel J., Lester, Edward A., Ryan, Dean E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/120
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/045 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. determination of anti-collision manoeuvers radar or analogous systems specially adapted for anti-collision between aircraft G01S13/933

Abstract

An aircraft traffic alert system that minimizes false alarms and unnecessary alerts by automatically adjusting the sensitivity of the system based on proximity to an airport. The system also can use information from a flight management system (FMS) or GPS navigation system (GNS) to only adjust the sensitivity near a destination airport and to suppress potential alerts for possible collisions with other aircraft that will be moot based on planned course changes of the subject aircraft. The system also can suppress alerts related to another aircraft when the other aircraft is landing on a parallel runway to the runway on which the subject aircraft is landing. The system may use multiple sensitivity levels based on different airspace classes, each class being associated with a different sensitivity level.

Claims

1. An aircraft traffic alerting system, comprising:

a traffic alerting device onboard a subject aircraft having at least a high sensitivity mode and a low sensitivity mode;

a position determining device onboard the subject aircraft and configured to communicate a determined position of the subject aircraft to the traffic alerting device;

a database of locations of airspaces, the database being coupled in communication with the traffic alerting device;

the traffic alerting device configured to automatically enter the low sensitivity mode when the determined position of the subject aircraft is within a predetermined airspace boundary of an airspace in the database, and to automatically enter the high sensitivity mode when the determined position of the subject aircraft is outside of any predetermined airspace boundary of the airspaces in the database.

2. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 wherein the position determining device is a global positioning system (GPS).

3. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 further comprising at least one of a Flight Management System (FMS) and a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Navigation System (GNS) onboard the subject aircraft and in communication with the traffic alerting device;

and

wherein the traffic alerting device receives an indication of a destination airport from the FMS or the GNS and only enters the low sensitivity mode when the determined position of the subject aircraft is within a predetermined airspace boundary of the destination airport.

4. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 further comprising at least one of a Flight Management System (FMS) and a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Navigation System (GNS) onboard the subject aircraft and in communication with the traffic alerting device;

and

wherein the traffic alerting device receives a planned flight path from the FMS or the GNS and suppresses a traffic alert related to a second aircraft if the planned flight path will move the subject aircraft away from a possible collision with the second aircraft.

5. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 further comprising a database of aircraft types and characteristics of each aircraft type;

and

wherein the traffic alerting device is configured to receive information about a second aircraft'"'"'s type and to adjust traffic alerts regarding the second aircraft based on the second aircraft'"'"'s characteristics.

6. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 wherein the database of locations of airports includes information about parallel runways at at least one of the airports;

and

wherein the traffic alerting device suppresses traffic alerts related to a second aircraft if the second aircraft is on a flight path that corresponds to a final approach path for a first runway that is parallel to a final approach path for a second runway that corresponds with the subject aircraft'"'"'s flight path.

7. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 1 further comprising:

a database of airspace classes and corresponding locations of the airspace classes; and

further comprising at least one intermediate sensitivity mode between the high sensitivity mode and the low sensitivity mode, wherein each of the at least one intermediate sensitivity modes corresponds to an airspace class; and

wherein the traffic alerting device adjusts sensitivity and enters one of the at least one intermediate sensitivity modes when the determined position of the subject aircraft is within the airspace class corresponding to the entered intermediate sensitivity mode.

8. The aircraft traffic alerting system of claim 7 wherein the at least one intermediate sensitivity mode comprises continuous sensitivity modes between the high sensitivity mode and the low sensitivity mode.

9. A method of alerting of aircraft traffic, comprising:

determining a position of a subject aircraft;

comparing the determined position to known positions of airports and to predetermined boundaries of each airport; and

automatically setting a traffic alerting system in the subject aircraft to a high sensitivity level when the determined position of the subject aircraft is outside of any predetermined boundary of each airport and automatically setting the traffic alerting system in the subject aircraft to a low sensitivity level when the determined position of the subject aircraft is within the predetermined boundary of an airport.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining the position of a subject aircraft includes determining the position in a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising containing the positions and predetermined boundaries of airports, location and class of airspaces, and aircraft characteristics in a database searchable (accessible) by the traffic alerting system.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining the subject aircraft'"'"'s planned flight path and suppressing any traffic alerts related to a second aircraft if the planned flight path will move the subject aircraft away from a possible collision with the second aircraft.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining a second aircraft'"'"'s type and flight characteristics associated with the second aircraft'"'"'s type;

and

adjusting traffic alerts regarding the second aircraft based on the second aircraft'"'"'s flight characteristics.

14. The method of claim 9 further comprising suppressing traffic alerts related to a second aircraft if the second aircraft is on a flight path that corresponds to a final approach path for a first runway that is parallel to a final approach path for a second runway that corresponds with the subject aircraft'"'"'s flight path.

15. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining the class of airspace in which the subject aircraft is positioned;

and

adjusting the sensitivity level of the traffic alerting system to an intermediate level between the high sensitivity level and the low sensitivity level that corresponds to the determined class of airspace.

16. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining the subject aircraft'"'"'s destination airport and only automatically setting the traffic alerting system to the low sensitivity level when the determined position of the subject aircraft is within the predetermined boundary of the destination airport.