Smart airport automation system
First Claim
1. A smart airport automation system for managing the operation of a plurality of vehicles on an airport surface or in the surrounding airspace, comprising:
- a plurality of data inputs containing aircraft and airport-related information for an airport from a plurality of sources and in a plurality of different data formats;
at least one processor for decoding, assembling, associating, correlating and fusing said plurality of data inputs into structured data, and for distributing said structured data in real-time, wherein said at least one processor computes vehicle position data for vehicles on or near said airport surface in real-time, projects vehicle trajectories or movements, and identifies or predicts unsafe conditions from said projected vehicle trajectories or movements;
a vehicle sequence determination system that uses the projected vehicle trajectories to compute a desired sequence among vehicles, anda communications system that transmits in real-time said structured data and advisories comprising sequence advisories containing said desired sequence among vehicles to vehicles on or near said airport surface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A smart airport automation system gathers and reinterprets a wide variety of aircraft and airport related data and information around unattended or non-towered airports. Data is gathered from many different types of sources, and in otherwise incompatible data formats. The smart airport automation system then decodes, assembles, fuses, and broadcasts structured information, in real-time, to aircraft pilots. The fused information is also useful to remotely located air traffic controllers who monitor non-towered airport operations. The system includes a data fusion and distribution computer that imports aircraft position and velocity, weather, and airport specific data. The data inputs are used to compute safe takeoff and landing sequences, and other airport advisory information for participating aircraft.
63 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A smart airport automation system for managing the operation of a plurality of vehicles on an airport surface or in the surrounding airspace, comprising:
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a plurality of data inputs containing aircraft and airport-related information for an airport from a plurality of sources and in a plurality of different data formats; at least one processor for decoding, assembling, associating, correlating and fusing said plurality of data inputs into structured data, and for distributing said structured data in real-time, wherein said at least one processor computes vehicle position data for vehicles on or near said airport surface in real-time, projects vehicle trajectories or movements, and identifies or predicts unsafe conditions from said projected vehicle trajectories or movements; a vehicle sequence determination system that uses the projected vehicle trajectories to compute a desired sequence among vehicles, and a communications system that transmits in real-time said structured data and advisories comprising sequence advisories containing said desired sequence among vehicles to vehicles on or near said airport surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A smart automation system for managing the operation of a plurality of vehicles on an airport surface or in the surrounding airspace, comprising:
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an advisory subsystem that determines the active runway or runways in use and their utility for safe landing and takeoff operations; a vehicle locating subsystem that determines the current position and velocities for vehicles on or near said airport surface in real-time; a trajectory estimation system that projects and predicts the trajectories of a plurality of vehicles based upon current and historical state and status data extracted from vehicle surveillance sources, vehicle performance capabilities, intent, and stored local surface and air traffic pattern data; a vehicle sequence determination system that uses projected trajectories to compute a desired sequence among vehicles; and a communication system that transmits structured data comprising airport information, vehicle location and intent, and advisories comprising sequence advisories containing said desired sequence among vehicles to vehicles on or near said airport surface. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A smart airport automation system for use at unattended or non-towered airports comprising:
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means for receiving airport-related information from one or more airport-related information systems using one or more data formats; means for generating airport specific data; means for determining in real-time the position of low altitude aircraft in the vicinity of said airport and aircraft or vehicles on the surface of said airport from sources using one or more data formats; means for fusing, organizing and distributing said aircraft and vehicle position data, airport-related information and airport specific data from said one or more airport-related information systems using one or more data formats into structured data in a single format in real-time; means for predicting vehicle trajectories and movements based upon at least one of current and historical position data, vehicle performance capabilities, intent, and stored local surface and air traffic pattern data; means for predicting and detecting potential vehicle conflicts based on predicted trajectories, intentions and vehicle movements; a means for determining a desired vehicle sequence based on at least projected trajectories and movements of vehicles on or near said airport surface; and means for communicating said structured data and advisories comprising sequence advisories containing said desired vehicle sequence in real-time to vehicles in the vicinity or on the surface of said airport. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. A smart airport automation system advisory generation system for use at unattended or non-towered airport, comprising:
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an airport advisory subsystem that receives weather and airport configuration data, determines the active runway(s) in use, its utility for conducting safe flight operations; an aircraft trajectory estimation system to predict each aircraft'"'"'s future unconstrained trajectory (a) from position and velocity data extracted from aircraft surveillance sources, (b) known flight intent, (c) recent aircraft trajectory histories, and (d) stored local air traffic pattern data; a takeoff and landing sequence determination system that uses projected unconstrained aircraft trajectories and aircraft takeoff and landing intentions to compute a desirable runway usage sequence among aircraft and generates a runway sequence advisory message; an aircraft conflict detection system that uses aircraft projected trajectories and intentions to compute potentially unsafe conditions and loss of desired aircraft separations within a runway usage sequence; wherein said aircraft conflict detection system generates a conflict detection advisory message upon occurrence or prediction of unsafe conditions or loss of acceptable safe separation; an airport communications system which transmits at least said runway sequence advisory messages and said conflict detection advisory messages to aircraft in the vicinity of the airport as digital data and graphics over a data link, for aircraft suitably equipped, and over a voice communications system; and an airport lighting control system that uses the current aircraft position, projected trajectory and intent information to automatically turn on and off runway and taxiway lighting, as appropriate, for safe night and low visibility operations. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A smart airport automation system for use at unattended or non-towered airports comprising:
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means for receiving airport-related information from one or more airport-related information systems using one or more data formats; means for generating airport specific data; means for determining the position of low altitude aircraft in the vicinity of said airport and aircraft on the surface of said airport from surveillance sources using one or more data formats; means for fusing said aircraft position data, said airport-related information and said airport specific data into structured data in a single format that is organized and packaged for graphical display, which includes takeoff and landing sequences for aircraft; means for predicting vehicle trajectories and movements based upon at least one of current and historical position data, vehicle performance capabilities, intent, and stored local surface and air traffic pattern data; means for detecting potentially unsafe conditions and loss of desired aircraft separation based on aircraft projected trajectories and intentions, and generating a conflict advisory if unsafe conditions or loss of desired aircraft separation is predicted or occurs; means for determining a desirable vehicle sequence based on at least projected trajectories and movements of vehicles on or near said airport surface; means for distributing and transmitting said structured data to aircraft and vehicles in the vicinity or on the surface of said airport; and means for automatically turning on and off runway and taxiway lighting using current aircraft position, projected trajectory and intent information for safe night and low visibility operations. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
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Specification