Termination secured route planning

• US 7,937,191 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2007
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saab AB
• Original Assignee: Saab AB
• Inventors: Tyskeng, Mathias, Ivansson, Johan
• Primary Examiner(s): Black; Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Li; Ce
• Application Number:
  US11/822,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20080147309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,401 Days
• Field of Search: 701/3, 701/4, 701/11, 701/23, 701/120, 701/200, 701/202, 701/208, 340/951, 340/967, 340/970, 340/974, 340/976, 340/977
• US Class Current: 701/4
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/105 specially adapted for unpowered flight, e.g. glider, parachuting, forced landing parachutes per se B64D17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/106 Change initiated in response to external conditions, e.g. avoidance of elevated terrain or of no-fly zones

Abstract

A method of forming a safe termination operation volume, and an aircraft provided with a system using such a volume to plan a flight route and/or an emergency route. The volume indicates the lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve a glide path of a vehicle to a termination point of an area of interest, wherein non allowable fly zones are taken into consideration by adding flight altitude to come around the non allowable fly zones when calculating the lowest allowable flight altitude.

Claims

1. A method for creating a representation of a safe termination operation volume indicating a lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve a glide path of a vehicle to a termination point of an area of interest, the method comprising:

taking non allowable fly zones into consideration by adding flight altitude to come around said non allowable fly zones when calculating the lowest allowable flight altitude;

discretising the area of interest into discretised areas;

inputting data concerning No fly zones and Lift and Drag ratio;

selecting at least one point defining a termination point;

computing the lowest allowable flight altitude for points adjacent to the point defining the termination point, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the point defining a termination point;

repeating the computing of the lowest allowable flight altitude for point adjacent to the point previously computed, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the previously computed point; and

repeating the computing and repeating the computing for all selected termination points until all points of the discretised area have received a lowest allowable flight altitude, resulting in a bottom surface of a safe termination operation volume.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein inputting data further comprises;

adding actual ground terrain data that are considered when calculating the safe termination operation volume.

3. A representation of a safe termination operation volume created according to the method of claim 1.

4. A method for planning a flight route using a safe termination operation volume according to claim 3, wherein the altitude of the flight plan is determined to never fall below the lowest allowable altitude according to the safe termination operation volume.

5. The method for producing a termination map using a safe termination operation volume according to claim 3 further comprising:

discretising the map into areas; and

determining for each of said discretised areas an altitude from said safe termination operation volume and a vector indicating the direction a vehicle should travel in order to reach a safe termination point.

6. A method for planning an emergency route of a vehicle when failure occurs in the vehicle resulting in that the vehicle can not complete its predetermined route in an area of interest, the method comprising:

receiving an indication that failure has occurred;

positioning the vehicle;

determining control parameters;

controlling the vehicle to move in accordance to the determined control parameters;

wherein said method makes use of a safe termination operation volume according to claim 5, and wherein said control parameters include an altitude read from said safe termination operation volume indicating lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve glide path to a termination point, and a direction read from vectors pointing in the direction towards the termination point.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining the control parameters further comprises selecting a safe termination operation volume indicating lowest allowable flight altitude and a direction based on what kind of failure has occurred and is indicated.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein determining the control parameters further comprises selecting a safe termination operation volume indicating lowest allowable flight altitude and a direction based on an indication of the direction the vehicle is travelling.

9. A control system useable for an unmanned vehicle comprising:

a functional monitoring system that receives indications when failure occurs;

a positioning unit that can position the vehicle with positioning information;

a central processing unit that determines control parameters; and

a flight control system comprising;

a main mission control sub system adapted to control the movement of the unmanned vehicle according to a predefined route wherein the control parameters have been taken into account; and

an emergency control sub system adapted to control the movement of the unmanned vehicle according to the control parameters received from the central processing unit;

wherein said control parameters include, an altitude read from a safe termination operation volume according to claim 5 indicating lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve glide path to the termination point.

10. The control system according to claim 9, wherein the control parameters further comprise a direction read from a map of vectors pointing in the direction towards the termination point based on the position received from the positioning unit when a failure is indicated by the functional monitoring system.

11. The control system according to claim 9, further comprising:

memory storage in order to store safe termination operation volumes indicating lowest allowable flight altitude to achieve glide path to the termination point, and a plurality of maps with vectors pointing in the direction towards the termination point.

12. A data structure useable as a precaution plan and as an emergency flight plan onboard an aircraft, which precaution plan and emergency flight plan uses the representation of a safe termination operation volume according to claim 1, comprising:

a number of records, each record corresponding to a limited geographical area, and the records together covering an area of interest for an aircraft having a mission, each record capable of holding data representative of a recommended lowest allowable flight altitude for non-emergency conditions, and also capable of holding data representative of a recommended flight direction for emergency conditions, wherein at least one no allowable fly zone has been taken into consideration and thereby adding flight altitude to the lowest allowable flight altitude to come around said at least one non allowable fly zone.

13. The data structure according to claim 12, where the data base structure is realised as two separate memory entities, one holding the lowest allowable flight altitude and one holding emergency flight direction information.

14. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

computer program instructions recorded on the computer readable medium and executable by a computer to carry out a method of creating a safe termination operation volume comprising taking non allowable fly zones into consideration by adding flight altitude to come around said non allowable fly zones when calculating the lowest allowable flight altitude, discretising the area of interest into discretised areas, inputting data concerning No fly zones and Lift and Drag ratio, selecting at least one point defining a termination point, computing the lowest allowable flight altitude for points adjacent to the point defining the termination point, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the point defining a termination point, repeating the computing of the lowest allowable flight altitude for point adjacent to the point previously computed, wherein the lowest allowable flight altitude is computed to admit gliding of the vehicle to the lowest allowable flight altitude of the previously computed point, and repeating the computing and repeating the computing for all selected termination points until all points of the discretised area have received a lowest allowable flight altitude, resulting in a bottom surface of a safe termination operation volume.