Method and system for maintaining spatio-temporal data

• US 7,728,758 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Thomas, Vicraj T, Freebersyser, James A., Varadarajan, Srivatsan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lobo; Ian J
• Application Number:
  US11/715,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20080218384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• Field of Search: 342/29, 342/36, 342/26.B, 342/26.R, 701/14
• US Class Current: 342/26.00B
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones

Abstract

A system and method for maintaining spatio-temporal data for a given area (e.g., an airspace) containing a given node (e.g., an aircraft) and one or more other nodes (e.g., aircraft). The given aircraft may break the given airspace into a first plurality of smaller airspaces, and may also break the given airspace into a second plurality of smaller airspaces. The given aircraft may then detect local spatio-temporal data for each smaller airspace located within its detectable range. The aircraft may also receive remote spatio-temporal data for the smaller airspaces from the one or more other aircraft. Thereafter, the aircraft may update stored spatio-temporal data based on the aircraft'"'"'s navigation data, the local spatio-temporal data, the remote spatio-temporal data, and/or a reliability of the data. Further, the aircraft may transmit the stored spatio-temporal data for receipt by the one or more other aircraft.

Claims

1. An aircraft radar system for maintaining airspace hazard data in a given airspace comprising:

airspace detection equipment;

a communication interface for engaging in communications with one or more other radar systems;

a navigation system interface for communicating with an aircraft navigation system;

a user interface;

a processor;

data storage;

airspace hazard data stored in the data storage; and

program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processor to carry out functions including;

breaking the given airspace into a first plurality of smaller airspaces and a second plurality of smaller airspaces, wherein each of the second plurality of smaller airspaces contains two or more of the first plurality of smaller airspaces;

detecting local airspace hazard data for each of the plurality of smaller airspaces located within a detectable range of the aircraft radar system;

receiving remote airspace hazard data from the one or more other radar systems;

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage; and

transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for receipt by the one or more other radar systems.

2. The aircraft radar system of claim 1, wherein the data storage comprises a queue structure that includes:

a first queue including one or more rows, wherein each row of the first queue contains airspace hazard data for one of the first plurality of smaller airspaces,

a second queue including one or more rows, wherein each row of the second queue contains airspace hazard data for one of the second plurality of smaller airspaces; and

one or more bitwise ORs with an input and an output, wherein the input of each of the bitwise ORs connects to two or more rows of the first queue, and wherein the output of each of the bitwise ORs connects to a row of the second queue.

3. The aircraft radar system of claim 2, wherein the data storage comprises a first queue structure of claim 2 and a second queue structure of claim 2, wherein the first queue structure contains airspace hazard data for a region located behind the aircraft radar system, and wherein the second queue structure contains airspace hazard data for a region located in front of the aircraft radar system.

4. The aircraft radar system of claim 1, wherein the stored hazard data comprises hazard indicators, identifiers of the first and second plurality of smaller airspaces, and indicators of the reliability of the stored hazard data.

5. The aircraft radar system of claim 1, further comprising program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processor to carry out functions including:

assigning identifiers to each of the smaller airspaces;

ordering the airspace hazard data in data storage for each of the smaller airspaces to correspond to a location of each of the smaller airspaces; and

providing a user of the aircraft radar system with the stored airspace hazard data.

6. The aircraft radar system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions comprise an application layer protocol of the OSI network protocol model.

7. The aircraft radar system of claim 1, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises:

updating the airspace hazard data for the second plurality of smaller airspaces based on the airspace hazard data for the first plurality of smaller airspaces.

8. The aircraft radar system of claim 7, wherein transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises:

transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the second plurality of smaller airspaces according to a first probability; and

thereafter transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the first plurality of smaller airspaces according to a second probability.

9. An aircraft radar system for maintaining airspace hazard data in a given airspace of a given aircraft, the aircraft radar system comprising:

airspace detection equipment;

a communication interface for engaging in communications with one or more other radar systems of one or more other aircraft;

a navigation system interface for communicating with an aircraft navigation system;

a user interface;

a processor;

data storage;

airspace hazard data stored in the data storage; and

program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processor to carry out functions including;

breaking the given airspace into a plurality of smaller airspaces;

detecting local airspace hazard data for each of the plurality of smaller airspaces located within the detectable range of the aircraft radar system;

receiving remote airspace hazard data from the one or more other radar systems;

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage; and

transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for receipt by the one or more other radar systems.

10. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises:

determining current navigation data of aircraft in the airspace;

determining a difference between the current navigation data and previously determined navigation data of the aircraft;

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage based on the difference.

11. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein the given aircraft only maintains the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a storage region of the given airspace, and wherein updating airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises:

deleting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for each of the plurality of smaller airspaces located outside of the storage region.

12. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein updating airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace located within the detectable range based on the local airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace.

13. The aircraft radar system of claim 12, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace located within the detectable range based on the local airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace comprises:

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace with the local airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace if the local airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace indicates a presence of an airspace hazard.

14. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein updating airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace.

15. The aircraft radar system of claim 14, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace comprises:

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace with the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace if the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace indicates a presence of an airspace hazard.

16. The aircraft radar system of claim 14, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace comprises:

determining whether the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace was previously updated based on local airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace; and

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace with the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace based on that determination.

17. The aircraft radar system of claim 14, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace comprises:

determining whether the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace is more recent that the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace; and

overwriting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace with the remote airspace hazard data for the given smaller airspace based on that determination.

18. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein updating airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on a reliability of the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace.

19. The aircraft radar system of claim 18, wherein updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace based on a reliability of the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace comprises:

determining an amount of time since a last update of the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace;

comparing the determined amount of time to a predetermined amount of time; and

updating the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace if the determined amount of time exceeds the predetermined amount of time.

20. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, further comprising:

ordering the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for each of the plurality of smaller airspaces to correspond to an identity of each of the plurality of smaller airspaces.

21. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace if the stored airspace hazard data indicates a presence of an airspace hazard for the given smaller airspace.

22. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for a given smaller airspace if the given aircraft has updated the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for the given smaller airspace since the last transmission of the airspace hazard data stored in data storage.

23. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, wherein transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage comprises

defining a transmit region of the given airspace, wherein the transmit region includes a region behind the given aircraft and a region ahead of the given aircraft;

and

transmitting the airspace hazard data stored in data storage for each of the plurality of smaller airspaces located within the transmit region.

24. The aircraft radar system of claim 9, further comprising:

determining current navigation data of the given aircraft; and

transmitting the current navigation data for receipt by the one or more other aircraft.

25. The aircraft radar system of claim 9 further comprising:

providing a user of the given aircraft with the airspace hazard data stored in data storage.