Crossing traffic depiction in an ITP display

• US 9,355,565 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2010
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Pepitone, Dave, Letsu-Dake, Emmanuel, Mulhall, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Obeid, Fahd
• Application Number:
  US12/822,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20110316857A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,169 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91

Abstract

Provided are methods and systems for the disambiguation of an in trail procedure (ITP) vertical display by calculating and rendering symbology on a plan view traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) display. The symbology represents an intersection point between the ground track of an ITP aircraft and the ground track of a blocking aircraft and further represents an association between the intersection point and the respective ITP blocking aircraft.

Claims

1. A method for disambiguating traffic information an ITP visual display, comprising:

establishing a plan view of an air traffic pattern in a first display area featuring at least an iconic representation of an ITP aircraft and an iconic representation of a blocking aircraft;

receiving and displaying a common point along a ground track of the ITP aircraft and a ground track of the blocking aircraft in the plan view, wherein when the common point along the ground track of the ITP aircraft is a collision point then not rendering the indicator, and when the common point along the ground track of the ITP aircraft is not a collision point then rendering the indicator; and

receiving and displaying an indicator in the plan view that associates the blocking aircraft with the displayed common point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator is a line.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the common point along the ground track of the ITP aircraft and the ground track of the blocking aircraft is exclusively a collision point.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plan view in the first display area displays at least some graphical information provided by an ITP computer system.

5. A system for disambiguating traffic information an ITP visual display, comprising:

a visual display device configured to display a plan view of local aircraft traffic;

a first computing device in communication with the visual display device, the first computing device configured to provide a first set of graphical information to the visual display device for rendering the plan view of the aircraft traffic on the visual display device;

a second computing device configured to generate a second set of graphical information defining an intersection point of ground tracks of at least two aircraft and a symbology associating the at least two aircraft; and

a means to communicate the second set of graphical data defining the intersection point between the ground tracks of the at least two aircraft and the symbology associating the at least two aircraft to the first computing device for rendering with the first set of graphical information on the visual display device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second computing device is a traffic collision avoidance system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first computing device is an in trail procedure computer.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the symbology associating the at least two aircraft is a line between one of the at least two aircraft and the intersection point of ground tracks of the at least two aircraft.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the symbology associating the at least two aircraft is a dashed line between one of the at least two aircraft and the intersection point of ground tracks of the at least two aircraft.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein the intersection point of the ground tracks of the at least two aircraft is a white dot.

11. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions that when execute by a computing device perform the steps of:

establishing a plan view of an air traffic pattern in a first display area featuring at least an iconic representation of an ITP aircraft and an iconic representation of a blocking aircraft;

determining and displaying a common point along a ground track of the ITP aircraft and a ground track of the blocking aircraft in the plan view, wherein when the common point along the ground track of the ITP aircraft is a collision point then not rendering the indicator, and when the common point along the ground track of the ITP aircraft is not a collision point then rendering the indicator; and

determining and displaying an indicator in the plan view that associates the blocking aircraft with the displayed common point.