APPARATUS FOR MONITORING AIRCRAFT POSITION

• US 20160155342A1
• Filed: 12/02/2014
• Published: 06/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SITA Information Networking Computing USA Incorporated (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Original Assignee: SITA Information Networking Computing USA Incorporated (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Inventors: Gibson, Paul, LACROIX, Yanik, VACHON, Benoit Jean Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 10,001,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

An apparatus and computerised method are provided for monitoring the positions of one or more aircraft. The apparatus comprises a first receiver configured to receive first aircraft position information, over a digital data link, from a first radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a first period, via one or more ground stations and a second receiver configured to receive second aircraft position information broadcasted from a second radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a second period, via one or more ground stations. The apparatus additionally comprises a third receiver configured to receive electronic geographical mapping data and a processor configured to receive the first and second aircraft position information, to filter the quantity of first and second aircraft position information to smooth the filtered information and then output the smoothed information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data.

Claims

1. An apparatus for monitoring the position of one or more aircraft, comprising:

a first receiver device configured to receive first aircraft position information, over a digital data link, from a first radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a first periodicity, via one or more ground stations;

a second receiver device configured to receive second aircraft position information broadcasted from a second radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a second periodicity, via one or more ground stations;

a third receiver device configured to receive electronic geographical mapping data;

a buffer configured to receive the first and second aircraft position information from the first and second receiver devices respectively;

a processor configured to receive and filter the buffered first and second aircraft position information; and

to smooth the filtered aircraft position information and to output the smoothed aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data;

wherein the processor is configured to filter the first and second aircraft position information such that the quantity of position information data smoothed for a given aircraft is within a given limit for a given time period.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to filter the aircraft position information based on the relative positional accuracy and the relative temporal accuracy of the respective sources that the aircraft position information is received from.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to smooth the filtered aircraft position information by removing erroneous data points or by averaging data points.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second period is shorter than the first periodicity.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first radio frequency source comprises an Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) transceiver and the first aircraft position information is ACARS aircraft position information.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the second radio frequency source comprises an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast transmitter.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the one or more ground stations may comprise a VHF ground station, a HF ground station or a satellite ground station.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a fourth receiver configured to receive radar aircraft position data, wherein the processor is configured to filter the radar aircraft position data in combination with the first and second aircraft position information such that the quantity of position information data smoothed is within a given limit for a given time period.

9. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a fifth receiver configured to receive weather data, wherein the processor is further configured to output the weather data such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data and smoothed aircraft position information.

10. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sixth receiver configured to receive flight plan data corresponding to the aircraft, wherein the processor is further configured to output the flight plan data such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data and smoothed aircraft position information.

11. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the buffer is a circular buffer and wherein the processor filter comprises a sampling filter for filtering and sorting the aircraft position information to be included in a reduced set of aircraft position information, the sampling filter optionally being based on temporal and precision criteria.

12. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to identify aircraft position data relating to a given aircraft by a data matching engine.

13. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data store configured to store the smoothed aircraft position information for subsequent analysis.

14. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to output extrapolated aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data if no aircraft position information is received at the processor for a given aircraft within a given time period.

15. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to output ACARS aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data alongside the smoothed aircraft position information if the ACARS aircraft position information does not form part of the smoothed aircraft position information.

16. A computerised method for monitoring the position of one or more aircraft, comprising:

receiving, at a first receiver device, first aircraft position information, over a digital data link, from a first radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a first periodicity, via one or more ground stations;

receiving, at a second receiver device, second aircraft position information broadcasted from a second radio frequency source located onboard the aircraft at a second periodicity, via one or more ground stations;

receiving, at a third receiver device, electronic geographical mapping data;

receiving, at a buffer, the received first and second aircraft position information;

processing, at a processor, the buffered first and second aircraft position information to filter the first and second aircraft position information;

processing, at the processor, the filtered aircraft position information to produce smoothed aircraft position information; and

outputting, from the processor, the smoothed aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data;

wherein the processor filters the first and second aircraft position information such that the quantity of position information data smoothed for a given aircraft is within a given limit for a given time period.

17. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the processor filters aircraft position information based on the relative positional accuracy and the relative temporal accuracy of the respective sources that the aircraft position information is received from.

18. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein producing smoothed aircraft position information comprises removing erroneous data points or averaging data points.

19. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the second periodicity is shorter than the first periodicity.

20. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the first aircraft position information is received, at the first receiver, from an Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) transceiver and the first aircraft position information is ACARS aircraft position information.

21. A computerised method according to claim 20, wherein the second aircraft position information is received, at the second receiver, from an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast transmitter.

22. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the first and second aircraft position information may be received via one or more of a VHF ground station, a HF ground station or a satellite ground station.

23. A computerised method according to claim 16, further comprising receiving, at a fourth receiver, radar aircraft position data, filtering the radar aircraft position data in combination with the first and second aircraft position information such that the quantity of position information data smoothed is within a given limit for a given time period.

24. A computerised method according to claim 16, further comprising receiving, at a fifth receiver, weather data and outputting, from the processor, the weather data such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data.

25. A computerised method according to claim 16, further comprising receiving, at a sixth receiver, flight plan data corresponding to the aircraft and outputting, from the processor, the flight plan data such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data and smoothed aircraft position information.

26. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the buffer is a circular buffer and wherein the processor filtering step comprises using a sampling filter to filter and sort the aircraft position information to be included in a reduced set of aircraft position information, the sampling filter optionally being based on temporal and precision criteria.

27. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the method further comprises identifying, at the processor, aircraft position data relating to a given aircraft by a data matching engine.

28. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the smoothed aircraft position information is stored, in a data store, for subsequent analysis.

29. A computerised method according to claim 16, wherein the processor further outputs extrapolated aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data if no aircraft position information is received at the processor for a given aircraft within a given time period.

30. A computerised method according to claim 21, wherein the processor further outputs ACARS aircraft position information such that it can be overlaid onto the electronic geographical mapping data alongside the smoothed aircraft position information if the ACARS aircraft position information does not form part of the smoothed aircraft position information.

31. An apparatus for monitoring the position of an aircraft, comprising:

a first receiver device configured to receive aircraft position information corresponding to the aircraft;

a second receiver device configured to receive a number of frames of weather data, each frame corresponding to a given moment in time;

a processor configured to receive the aircraft position information, the weather data and to derive aircraft position data for the aircraft corresponding to each moment in time represented by the frames of weather data;

wherein the processor is further configured to output the aircraft position information, the aircraft position data and the weather data such that it can be overlaid onto electronic geographical mapping data; and

wherein, for frames of weather data corresponding to a future moment in time, the processor is further configured to estimate the aircraft position data based on an extrapolation from a position and trajectory of the aircraft identified by the aircraft position information or based on an interpolation between a position of the aircraft identified by the aircraft position information and a flight plan corresponding to the aircraft received at the processor.