Collison avoidance communication system and method
First Claim
1. In a system having a plurality of equipped and unequipped aircraft at various locations and having a control station, each aircraft of said equipped set of nearby aircraft including an aircraft station comprising a controller, an input device and video display for allowing an aircraft crew member to interact with said controller, a location determination system coupled to said controller and a radio for communicating over a common communication channel, said radio coupled to said controller, a method of managing information useful for safely operating said aircraft, said method comprising steps of:
- obtaining, at a first aircraft, first data describing locations of an equipped set of nearby aircraft, said first data being obtained from said equipped set of nearby aircraft;
obtaining, at said first aircraft, second data describing locations of an unequipped set of nearby aircraft, said second data being obtained from said control station; and
displaying, using different symbols for equipped and unequipped aircraft, said first and second location data on said video display at said first aircraft.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In a collision avoidance communication system and method, equipped aircraft (12) and ground control stations (18) which represent nodes of an RF communication network (22). A radar system (16) determines locations of equipped aircraft (12) and unequipped aircraft (14) within an airspace (10). The ground control station (18) couples to the radar system (16) and the network (22) to receive location data for the aircraft (12, 14). These location data are merged in an object list (142). The ground control station (18) displays objects from the object list (142), broadcasts surrogate location data (84) for unequipped aircraft (14) over the network (22), and broadcasts control data (100, 116) describing weather conditions, geographic features, and the like, over the network (22). Equipped aircraft 12 receive aircraft location data (84) and control data (100, 116) from the network (22). Each equipped aircraft (12) determines its own location. The equipped aircraft (12) include a display (62) which shows the locations and orientations of nearby aircraft (12, 14) and of geographic features, and the equipped aircraft (12) broadcast their own locations over the network (22).
-
Citations
29 Claims
-
1. In a system having a plurality of equipped and unequipped aircraft at various locations and having a control station, each aircraft of said equipped set of nearby aircraft including an aircraft station comprising a controller, an input device and video display for allowing an aircraft crew member to interact with said controller, a location determination system coupled to said controller and a radio for communicating over a common communication channel, said radio coupled to said controller, a method of managing information useful for safely operating said aircraft, said method comprising steps of:
-
obtaining, at a first aircraft, first data describing locations of an equipped set of nearby aircraft, said first data being obtained from said equipped set of nearby aircraft; obtaining, at said first aircraft, second data describing locations of an unequipped set of nearby aircraft, said second data being obtained from said control station; and displaying, using different symbols for equipped and unequipped aircraft, said first and second location data on said video display at said first aircraft. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A system for managing information useful in safely operating a population of aircraft including an equipped set of aircraft and an unequipped set of aircraft, each aircraft of said equipped set of nearby aircraft including an aircraft station comprising a controller, an input device and video display for allowing an aircraft crew member to interact with said controller, a location determination system coupled to said controller and a radio for communication over a common communication channel, said radio coupled to said controller, said system comprising:
-
a radar subsystem configured to determine locations for substantially all aircraft of said population of aircraft; and a control station in data communication with said radar subsystem, said control station being configured to transmit, over a common channel, data describing locations for said unequipped set of aircraft wherein each aircraft station is configured to determine a location for its aircraft, to transmit data describing locations for its aircraft, to detect location data transmitted from other aircraft stations and said control station, and to display, using different symbols for equipped and unequipped aircraft said location data determined by said control station and said aircraft station. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A method for managing information useful in safely operating a population of aircraft which includes an equipped set of aircraft and an unequipped set of aircraft, each aircraft of said equipped set of nearby aircraft including an aircraft station comprising a controller, an input device and video display for allowing and aircraft crew member to interact with said controller, a location determination system coupled to said controller and a radio for communicating over a common communication channel, said radio coupled to said controller, said method comprising steps of:
-
operating a radar system to determine locations for substantially all aircraft of said population of aircraft; transmitting, from a control station and in response to said operating step, data describing locations for said unequipped set of aircraft; and at each aircraft from said equipped set of aircraft; identifying a location for said equipped aircraft, transmitting data describing said location determined in said identifying step, detecting location data transmitted from other aircraft from said equipped set of aircraft and from said control station, and displaying, using different symbols for equipped and unequipped aircraft said location data from said detecting step. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
Specification