Device for calculating a flight plan of an aircraft

• US 8,275,499 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Coulmeau, Francois, Gutierrez-Castaneda, Manuel, Marty, Nicolas
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Olsen, Lin B
• Application Number:
  US12/579,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20100100308A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,077 Days
• Field of Search: 701/122, 701/515
• US Class Current: 701/14
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones

Abstract

The invention relates to a device for formulating a flight plan ensuring sufficient safety margins for a duration of a few minutes in relation to the set of flight constraints that could arise and comprising means for:

• detecting the surrounding moving objects (aircraft or meteorological phenomena),
• evaluating their type and the danger that they represent,
• formulating a reconfiguration flight plan ensuring a separation with these phenomena and taking best account of the constraints of the initially followed flight plan, avoiding prohibited or regulated airspaces and avoiding the surrounding relief with ad hoc operational margins.

Claims

1. Device for calculating a flight plan of an aircraft, the flight plan making it possible to meet up with an initial flight plan, the aircraft comprising sensors for detecting surrounding moving objects and weather sensors for detecting meteorological phenomena, the device comprising means for:

a. determining parameters of the moving objects detected on the basis of data originating from the sensors for detecting surrounding moving objects;

b. determining parameters of the meteorological phenomena detected on the basis of meteorological data originating from the weather sensors;

c. calculating prohibited zones and their evolution over time on the basis of the parameters characterizing the moving objects and the meteorological phenomena detected, the prohibited zones defining a space where the aircraft cannot fly;

d. calculating zones reachable by the aircraft and their evolution over time on the basis of;

i. a position of the aircraft;

ii. data describing regulated zones prohibited to navigation;

iii. a digital terrain model; and

iv. a list of obstacles and prohibited zones calculated;

e. selecting a joining point meeting up with the initial flight plan situated in a reachable zone; and

f. calculating a joining flight plan for meeting up with the selected joining point.

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation of the joining flight plan is iterated at regular intervals, a flight plan being evaluated as a function of a quality criterion and in that a joining flight plan calculated at a given iteration, termed the new flight plan, becomes the flight plan followed by the aircraft if a joining flight plan, calculated at a previous iteration and followed by the aircraft, termed the current flight plan, exhibits an evaluation, within the sense of the quality criterion, for which the difference with the evaluation of the new calculated flight plan is above a given threshold.

3. Device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation of reachable zones comprises an estimation of the distances of the points in a map obtained by projection on a horizontal plane of a 3D representation of a deployment space by a mesh of elementary cubes that are associated with danger levels and are labeled by an altitude, a latitude, a longitude and a date, the estimation consisting in applying a distance transform to the cubes associated with danger levels greater than an admissible value N.sub.l labeling the zones prohibited for the aircraft;

the distance transform estimating the distances of the various points of the projection with respect to a source point representing the position of the aircraft by applying, by scanning, a mask to the various points of the projection;

a determined initial distance value being assigned, at the start of the scan, to all the points of the projection except to the source point, the origin of the distance measurements, to which a zero distance value is assigned.

4. Device according to claim 3, wherein the estimation of distance from the source point to a point considered P.sub.i,j, termed the aim point, being placed in a determined box of the mask, consists for each neighboring point P.sub.V entering the boxes of the mask and whose distance having already been estimated in the course of the same scan in:

a. reading the estimated distance D.sub.V of the neighboring point P.sub.V;

b. reading a coefficient C.sub.XY of the mask corresponding to the box occupied by the neighboring point P.sub.V;

c. calculating a propagated distance D.sub.P corresponding to the sum of the estimated distance D.sub.V of the neighboring point P.sub.V and of the coefficient C.sub.XY assigned to that box of the mask occupied by the neighboring point P.sub.V;

D.sub.P=D.sub.V+C.sub.XY;

d. calculating a foreseeable altitude A.sub.P of the aircraft after crossing the distance D.sub.P;

e. calculating a propagated date Tp at the position after crossing the distance D.sub.P;

f. reading a foreseeable danger level N.sub.i,j,Ap,Tp of the aim point P.sub.i,j in the representation as elementary cubes of the airspace at the foreseeable altitude A.sub.P and at propagated date Tp;

g. comparing the foreseeable danger level N.sub.i,j,Ap,Tp with a permitted limit value N.sub.l for the flight, increased by a safety margin .DELTA.;

h. eliminating the propagated distance D.sub.P if the foreseeable danger level N.sub.i,j,Ap,Tp is greater than that admissible limit N.sub.l for the flight increased by the safety margin .DELTA.;

i. if the foreseeable danger level N.sub.i,j,Ap,Tp increased by the safety margin .DELTA. is below the limit N.sub.l fixed for the flight;

i. reading the distance D.sub.i,j already assigned to the aim point considered P.sub.i,j and comparing it with the propagated distance D.sub.P,

ii. eliminating the propagated distance D.sub.P if it is greater than or equal to the distance D.sub.i,j already assigned to the aim point considered P.sub.i,j, and replacing the distance D.sub.i,j already assigned to the aim point considered P.sub.i,j by the propagated distance D.sub.P if the latter is smaller the elementary cubes exhibiting a smaller distance than the largest distance measurable on the image at the end of the scan being designated reachable zones.

5. Device according to claim 1, wherein the selection of the joining point comprises the calculation of a score C for points of the initial flight plan situated in the reachable zone, the point for joining the initial flight plan being that obtaining the best score C, the score being calculated according to the following relation:

C=[(i=1n(1+Ci).alpha.i)1i)1n.alpha.i−

1]##EQU00003## where Ci is a score allotted according to an evaluation criterion i, and .alpha.sub.i is a value associated with the evaluation criterion i and reflecting its importance, i being a value lying between 1 and 5.

6. Device according to claim 1, wherein the parameters of the detected moving objects comprise at least one of the following characteristics:

speed, position, and a future flight plan.

7. Device according to claim 6, wherein the prohibited zone associated with a moving object characterized solely by its position is defined by a succession of concentric circles with radii obeying a time-dependent increasing law and whose center is the position of the moving object.

8. Device according to claim 6, wherein the prohibited zone associated with a moving object characterized by its position and by its speed vector is defined by a succession of cylinders, whose centers correspond to the position of the moving object as predicted on the basis of the speed vector, the said centers being spaced apart by a regular time interval p, the radii of the successive cylinders obeying a time-dependent increasing law complying with the following relation:

r.sub.i+r.sub.i+1>

p where p is the time interval separating the centers of two successive cylinders, r.sub.i and r.sub.i+1 represent the radii of two successive cylinders.

9. Device according to claim 6, wherein the prohibited zone associated with a moving object characterized by its position and by its future flight plan is defined by a tube enveloping the flight plan.

10. Device according to claim 6, wherein the prohibited zone associated with a moving object characterized by its position and by its future flight plan is defined by a rectangular parallelepiped enveloping the flight plan.