METHOD FOR MANAGEMENT OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER DATABASE USED FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER LOGON

• US 20150213720A1
• Filed: 04/10/2014
• Published: 07/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Judd, Thomas D., Axtell, Craig Deon, Diamant, Ronald Alan, Madaras, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,257,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0095 Aspects of air-traffic control not provided for in the other subgroups of this main group

Abstract

An avionics system includes a human-machine interface (HMI), wherein the HMI includes a display device that displays information to an operator and an input device that receives input from an operator; a storage device that stores master air traffic control (ATC) center data; a memory device that stores separately loaded ATC center data and hard-coded ATC center data, and a processing device communicatively coupled to the HMI, the storage device and the memory device. The processing device compares the separately loaded ATC center data with the hard-coded ATC center data; requests operator validation of changes between the separately loaded ATC center data and the hard-coded ATC center data using the HMI; and updates the master ATC center data when the operator validates the changes between the separately loaded ATC center data and the hard-coded ATC center data.

Claims

1. An avionics system comprising:

at least one human-machine interface, wherein the at least one human-machine interface includes at least one display device configured to display information to an operator and at least one input device configured to receive input from an operator;

at least one storage device configured to store master air traffic control center data;

at least one memory device configured to store separately loaded air traffic control center data and hard-coded air traffic control center data, and

at least one processing device communicatively coupled to the at least one human-machine interface, the at least one storage device, and the at least one memory device, wherein the at least one processing device is configured to;

compare the separately loaded air traffic control center data with the hard-coded air traffic control center data;

request operator validation of changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the human-machine interface; and

update the master air traffic control center data when the operator validates the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data.

2. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein no updates occur to the master air traffic control data when the operator does not validate the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the avionics system.

3. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein when the processing device requests operator validation, the at least one processing device is configured to request that the operator validate all of the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data, wherein if one or more of the changes are not validated by the operator, then all of the changes are rejected.

4. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein when the processing device requests operator validation, the at least one processing device is configured to request that the operator validate each change between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data, wherein each change is validated and accepted individually and only the validated and accepted changes are used to update the master air traffic control center data.

5. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to:

validate at least one of a checksum or a cyclic redundancy check for the separately loaded air traffic control center data; and

only request operator validation of the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the human-machine interface when the at least one of the checksum or cyclic redundancy check for the separately loaded air traffic control center data is validated.

6. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to load the separately loaded air traffic control center data into an avionics computer using at least one of a data loader and a storage device, wherein the avionics computer includes the at least one processing device, the at least one memory device and the at least one storage device.

7. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to load the separately loaded air traffic control center data into an avionics computer using a data loader, wherein the avionics computer includes the at least one processing device, the at least one memory device and the at least one storage device;

and

wherein the human-machine interface is incorporated into the data loader.

8. The avionics system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device is further configured to generate the separately loaded air traffic control center data using an air traffic control database creation tool.

9. The avionics system of claim 8, wherein when the at least one processing device generates the separately loaded air traffic control center data using an air traffic control database creation tool, the at least one processing device is configured to:

create at least one of an air traffic control center data checksum or an air traffic control center cyclic redundancy check; and

create a wrapper that supports a loader for loading the separately loaded air traffic control center data.

10. The avionics system of claim 8, where the at least one processing device is further configured to:

display contents of the separately loaded air traffic control data to an operator through a second human-machine interface; and

request the operator confirm the contents of the separately loaded air traffic control center data through the second human-machine interface.

11. A method comprising:

comparing separately loaded air traffic control center data with hard-coded air traffic control center data stored on an avionics computer;

requesting operator validation of changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data stored using a human-machine interface; and

updating a master air traffic control center database stored at the avionics computer when the operator validates the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the avionics computer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein no updates occur to the master air traffic control center database when the operator does not validate the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the avionics computer.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein requesting operator validation includes requesting that the operator validate all of the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data, wherein if one or more of the changes are not approved by the operator, then all of the changes are rejected.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein requesting operator validation includes requesting that the operator validate each change between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data, wherein each change is validated and accepted individually and only the validated and accepted changes are used to update the master air traffic control center data.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

validating at least one of a checksum or cyclic redundancy check for the separately loaded air traffic control center data; and

only requesting operator validation of the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data using the human-machine interface when the at least one of the checksum or cyclic redundancy check for the separately loaded air traffic control center data is validated.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

loading the separately loaded air traffic control center data into the avionics computer using at least one of a data loader and a storage device.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating the separately loaded air traffic control center data using an air traffic control database creation tool.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating the separately loaded air traffic control center data using an air traffic control database creation tool includes:

creating at least one of an air traffic control center database checksum or an air traffic control center database cyclic redundancy check; and

creating a wrapper that supports a loader for loading the separately loaded air traffic control center data.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

displaying contents of the separately loaded air traffic control center data to an operator through a second human-machine interface; and

requesting the operator confirm the contents of the separately loaded air traffic control center data through the second human-machine interface.

20. An avionic communication apparatus comprising:

an air traffic control database creation tool, wherein the air traffic control database creation tool generates separately loaded air traffic control center data;

at least one processing device;

at least one storage device communicatively coupled to the at least one processing device configured to store master air traffic control center data; and

at least one memory device communicatively coupled to the at least one processing device and configured to store hard-coded air traffic control center data and instructions which, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to;

compare the separately loaded air traffic control center data with the hard-coded air traffic control center data;

request operator validation of changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data; and

update the master air traffic control center data when the operator validates the changes between the separately loaded air traffic control center data and the hard-coded air traffic control center data.