Systems and methods for utilizing voice commands onboard an aircraft

• US 9,550,578 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2014
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: McCullough, Sue, Sivaratri, Mahesh
• Primary Examiner(s): ZHU, RICHARD Z
• Application Number:
  US14/171,847
• Publication Number:
  US 20150217870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 31/04 actuated personally
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 43/00 Arrangements or adaptations of instruments arrangements of cameras B64D47/08; aeronautical measuring instruments per se G01C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/085 Methods for reducing search complexity, pruning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A system and method are provided for programming a flight management system in response to a voice input. The voice input is validated (the pilot spoken vocabulary is thereby filtered (e.g., adapted) to improve recognition accuracy and reduce false positives) by comparing the current operational state of the aircraft (for example, climb, level flight, descent, speed, altitude, and heading), operation validities and availabilities (for example, operations allowed and not allowed) based on the flight management system planned and predicted lateral and vertical trajectory of the flight route (flight plan) from origin/present position to destination, and the requested action being taken.

Claims

1. A method for utilizing audio commands associated with a vehicle, the method comprising:

determining a current operational state of the vehicle;

determining predicted operational states of the vehicle at one or more waypoints of a travel plan for the vehicle;

identifying a current movement phase for the vehicle;

determining first allowed operations at a present position of the vehicle based on the current operational state and the current movement phase;

determining second allowed operations at the one or more waypoints along the travel plan of the vehicle based on the predicted operational states at the one or more waypoints;

outputting, by a travel management system, operation availability indications of the first and second allowed operations to a display system, the operation availability indications of the first allowed operations controlling the content of menu selection associated with a vehicle symbol and the operation availability indications of the second allowed operations controlling the content of menu selection associated with the one or more waypoints along the travel plan;

filtering a cockpit vocabulary to obtain a filtered vocabulary that retains the first allowed operations and the second allowed operations using the operation availability indications to filter out operations that are not valid at the present position of the vehicle based on the current operational state and the current movement phase or the one or more waypoints along the travel plan of the vehicle based on the predicted operational states at the one or more waypoints;

receiving an audio input;

validating the audio input as a predetermined audio input of a plurality of predetermined audio inputs using the filtered vocabulary, wherein one or more predetermined audio inputs of the plurality of predetermined audio inputs comprises a plurality of words; and

programming the travel management system with the validated audio input.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle comprises an aircraft, the current movement phase comprises a flight phase, the travel plan comprises a flight plan, and the travel management system equates to a flight management system.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the second allowed operations at the one or more waypoints along the flight plan comprises identifying whether any of altitude restraints, speed restraints, and timing restraints can be defined on the aircraft'"'"'s arrival at a defined point in the flight plan.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the first and/or second allowed operations at the present position and/or at the one or more waypoints along the flight plan comprises identifying whether any maneuvers comprising holding patterns, procedure turns, orbit patterns, flyovers;

vertical constraints comprising step climbs, step descends and diversions to specified altitudes; and

path restrictions comprising parallel offset paths, fixed radius paths associated with a navigation aid, fixed course paths, course intercept paths can be defined at the present position and/or at the one or more waypoints along the flight plan.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein identifying the first allowed operations at the present position of the vehicle comprises identifying whether any of initiating an early descent, diverting to a specified altitude, diverting to a specified waypoint, flying a vector course to final approach fix, and diverting to missed approach, diverting to an alternate airport is allowed at the present position.

6. The method of claim 1, the vehicle comprising an aircraft, the travel plan comprising a flight plan, and the travel management system comprising a flight management system onboard the aircraft, the aircraft including a display device and the display system coupled to the display device and the flight management system to display information associated with operation of the aircraft on the display device, the method further comprising:

using, by the display system, the operation availability indications to control menu selection associated with an airplane symbol on the display device or any of the one or more waypoints along the flight plan on the display device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle comprises an aircraft;

the travel plan comprises a flight plan;

the travel management system comprises the flight management system onboard the aircraft;

the aircraft includes a display device and the display system coupled to the display device; and

the flight management system displays information associated with operation of the aircraft on the display device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtered vocabulary comprises the plurality of predetermined audio inputs corresponding to the first and second allowed operations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining second allowed operations at the one or more waypoints along the travel plan of the vehicle comprises the travel management system identifying whether any of an altitude restraint, a speed restraint, and a timing restraint can be defined on the vehicle'"'"'s arrival at a defined waypoint of the one or more waypoints.

10. A method for utilizing audio commands associated with an aircraft, the method comprising:

determining a current operational state of the aircraft;

determining predicted operational states of the aircraft at one or more waypoints of a flight plan;

identifying a current flight phase for the aircraft;

outputting, by a flight management system onboard the aircraft to a display system onboard the aircraft, operation availability indications of first allowed operations at a present position of the aircraft based on the current operational state and the current flight phase and operation availability indications of second allowed operations at the one or more waypoints along the flight plan based on the predicted operational states at the one or more waypoints, wherein the operation availability indications of the first allowed operations control the content of menu selection associated with an aircraft symbol and the operation availability indications of the second allowed operations controlling the content of menu selection associated with the one or more waypoints along the flight plan;

filter a cockpit vocabulary using the operation availability indications output by the flight management system onboard the aircraft to retain the first allowed operations and the second allowed operations in a filtered cockpit vocabulary and to filter out operations that are not valid at the present position for the current operational state and the current flight phase or at the one or more waypoints along the flight plan, the filtered cockpit vocabulary comprising a plurality of predetermined audio inputs corresponding to the first allowed operations at the present position of the aircraft and the second allowed operations at the one or more waypoints, wherein one or more predetermined audio inputs of the plurality of predetermined audio inputs comprises a plurality of words;

receiving an audio input;

validating the audio input as one of the plurality of predetermined audio inputs corresponding to one of the allowed operations using the filtered cockpit vocabulary; and

programming the flight management system with the validated audio input.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the operational state comprise one of a climb, level flight, or a descent.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising identifying whether any of altitude restraints, speed restraints, and timing restraints can be defined on the aircraft'"'"'s arrival at a defined point in the flight plan.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising identifying whether any maneuvers comprising holding patterns, procedure turns, orbit patterns, flyovers;

vertical constraints comprising step climbs, step descends and diversions to specified altitudes; and

path restrictions comprising parallel offset paths, fixed radius paths, fixed course paths, course intercept paths can be defined at a present position of the aircraft and/or at various waypoints along the flight plan.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying whether any of initiating early descent, diverting to a specified altitude, diverting to a specified waypoint, flying a vector course to a final approach fix, diverting to a missed approach, diverting to an alternate airport is allowed at a present position of the aircraft.

15. A system for utilizing audio commands associated with an aircraft, the system comprising:

a display device onboard the aircraft;

a display system onboard the aircraft and coupled to the display device to display information associated with operation of the aircraft on the display device;

a flight management system coupled to the display system and configured to;

determine a current operational state of the aircraft;

identify a current movement phase for the aircraft;

determine first allowed operations at a present position of the aircraft;

determine second allowed operations at various waypoints along the intended path of the aircraft; and

output operation availability indications for the first and second allowed operations to the display system, wherein the operation availability indications for the first allowed operations control the content of menu selection associated with an aircraft symbol on the display device and the operation availability indications for the second allowed operations controlling the content of menu selection associated with one or more of the various waypoints along the intended path;

a speech recognition system configured to;

filter a cockpit vocabulary using the operation availability indications output by the flight management system to retain the first and second allowed operations based on the operation availability indications and filter out invalid operations at the present position of the aircraft and the various waypoints, resulting in a filtered cockpit vocabulary comprising a plurality of predetermined audio inputs corresponding to the first and second allowed operations, wherein one or more predetermined audio inputs of the plurality of predetermined audio inputs comprises a plurality of words;

an audio input device configured to;

receive an audio input; and

a processor configured to;

validate the audio input as one of the plurality of predetermined audio inputs corresponding to an allowed operation of the first and second allowed operations using the filtered cockpit vocabulary; and

program the flight management system with the validated audio input.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the current operational state comprises one of a climb, level flight, a descent, a speed, an altitude, and a heading.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the current movement phase comprises a current phase of the aircraft within a flight plan.

18. The system of claim 15 wherein the flight management system further identifies the second allowed operations at various waypoints along the flight plan including identifying whether any of altitude restraints, speed restraints, and timing restraints can be defined on the aircraft'"'"'s arrival at a defined point in the flight plan.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the flight management system is further configured to identify the first allowed operations at the present position of the aircraft including identifying whether any of initiating early descent, diverting to a specified altitude, diverting to a specified waypoint, flying a vector course to a final approach fix, diverting to a missed approach, diverting to an alternate airport is allowed at the present position.

20. The system of claim 15 wherein the audio input device is further configured to recognize a user'"'"'s natural speech pattern and operational vocabulary of the aircraft.