Airport surface movement guidance and control system

• US 6,282,488 B1
• Filed: 08/31/1998
• Issued: 08/28/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: OSLO Lufthavn AS (Government of Norway), Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: OSLO Lufthavn AS (Government of Norway), Siemens AG
• Inventors: Belger, Lothar, Skaar, Per Ingar, Berg-Nielsen, Fredrik, Henriksen, Einar, Jelu, Andre, Castor, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan
• Application Number:
  US09/144,326
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: 701/120, 701/3, 701/14, 701/15, 701/16, 701/17, 701/18, 244/315, 244/159, 244/160, 244/161, 244/114.R, 340/947, 340/948, 340/951, 340/952, 340/953, 340/954, 340/956, 340/957, 340/958, 340/971, 340/972, 340/981, 340/982, 348/113, 348/117, 348/143, 348/149
• US Class Current: 701/120
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/065 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. for taxiing or rolling

Abstract

An airport surface movement guidance and control system (SMGCS) involving detection, integrated processing and graphical display of the relevant, in particular the safety-relevant, positions and movements of aircraft, and optionally, vehicles, on airside (runway, taxiways, apron) and in the relevant airport airspace. At least one radar detects the positions and movements between airborne and parked positions of the aircraft. The relevant data are displayed after data concentration on the monitor of at least one controller station in graphical form and/or letter or number form. As a result, the operational management of the surface movement can be planned and executed from the at least one controller station by means of solely the SMGC system.

Claims

1. An airport surface movement guidance and control system comprising:

a radar arrangement that comprises at least one radar and that detects positions and movements of aircraft in a period extending from being airborne to being in a stationary, parked position;

a plurality of ground traffic signal devices for directing the aircraft, wherein the ground traffic signal devices comprise signal devices on runways, signal devices on taxiways, signal devices on an apron, and parking position signal devices; and

wherein the ground traffic signal devices comprise interfaces for outputting signal states of the traffic signal devices and for receiving signal state commands;

a processing system for integrating data detected by said radar arrangement and the signal states indicated by said interfaces;

an integrated graphical display system provided as an output for the integrated data on at least one monitor of at least one airport tower controller, and comprising a radar video of the positions and movements of the aircraft on the airport surface and in airspace of the airport and a video display of the signal states of said ground traffic signal devices; and

an input configured for the controller to input the signal state commands for said plurality of ground traffic signal devices.

2. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1,

further comprising at least one detector that detects positions and movements of ground vehicles of the airport; and

wherein said processing system further integrates data detected by said detector, and said integrated graphical display system further comprises a video display of the positions and movements of the ground vehicles.

3. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said at least one detector that detects the positions and movements of the ground vehicles comprises a communications unit including at least one of a transponder interrogator, a receiver for transponder squitters, an identification tag detector, and a wireless receiver.

4. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said communications unit further comprises a transmitter for transmitting instructions to the ground vehicles.

5. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said integrated graphical display system displays airport traffic routes, the positions of the aircraft and the ground vehicles and taxiing directions by means of at least a radar video.

6. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said integrated graphical display system further displays speeds of the aircraft and the ground vehicles.

7. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said integrated graphical display system is displayed on a single monitor.

8. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the-single monitor further displays windows with status displays and handover displays.

9. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the status displays and handover displays are displayed in line form and include acknowledgement lines.

10. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said integrated graphical display system displays airport traffic routes, the positions of the aircraft and the ground vehicles and taxiing directions by means of a synthesized display.

11. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 10, wherein:

said plurality of ground traffic signal devices comprises signal devices on take-off and landing runways, signal devices on an apron and taxiways, and parking position signal devices; and

said integrated graphical display system displays the signal states of said plurality of ground traffic signal devices on the synthesized display.

12. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said integrated graphical display system is displayed on a single monitor.

13. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 12, wherein the single monitor further displays windows with status displays and handover displays.

14. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the status displays and handover displays are displayed in line form and include acknowledgement lines.

15. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the video display of the ground traffic signal states is in character or numeric form.

16. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of ground traffic signal devices comprises stop bars and docking instruction notices.

17. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the positions and movements of the aircraft detected by said radar arrangement include airborne positions and movements of the aircraft during landing and takeoff.

18. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 17, wherein said radar arrangement comprises a primary radar for detecting the positions of the aircraft on airside grounds of the airport and a secondary radar for detecting the positions of the aircraft during the landing and the takeoff.

19. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 18, wherein said secondary radar detects the positions of the aircraft during the landing and the takeoff through transponders.

20. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said radar arrangement comprises a primary radar for detecting the positions of the aircraft on airside grounds of the airport.

21. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 20, wherein:

said processing system identifies the detected aircraft in accordance with stored data sources and the positions of the aircraft detected by said primary radar; and

said display system displays the identification of the detected aircraft.

22. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing system comprises a multilateration system that performs multilateration of signal arrival times of transponder squitters for detecting a current exact position of the aircraft and for identifying the aircraft.

23. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said processing system comprises a taxiing movement planning component for generating a collision-free taxiing traffic pattern for the aircraft and other surface movement; and

wherein the taxiing movement planning component includes data for aircraft landing direction and required safety separations, as a function of weather category.

24. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said integrated graphical display system displays taxiway lighting sections, stop bars and all further signaling devices utilized to control surface movement of the aircraft; and

said integrated graphical display system further displays a current switching state of the taxiway lighting sections, the stop bars and the further signaling devices.

25. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing system partitions the data and signal states on the basis of a controller responsibility assessment and outputs the partitioned data and signal states to the integrated graphical display system in accordance with the assessment.

26. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 25, wherein said processing system assesses a current extent of airport traffic, and partitions the data and signal states in accordance with the airport traffic assessment.

27. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 26,

further comprising a plurality of display monitors;

and

wherein, in accordance with the airport traffic assessment, the data and signal states are partitioned and displayed selectively on one or more of the display monitors.

28. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said processing system directs the data and signal states on the basis of a controller responsibility assessment;

said processing system causes said integrated graphical display system to display a handover display and an acknowledgement display on at least one monitor;

said input is further configured for a controller at least one monitor to input activation commands for activating display of the handover display and the acknowledgment display; and

said processing system performs the controller responsibility assessment in accordance with the activation commands.

29. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said processing system directs the data and signal states on the basis of a controller responsibility assessment;

said processing system partitions the data and signal states at least into landing and takeoff control area information, runway and taxiway control area information, and apron control area information in accordance with a location assessment;

said processing system causes said integrated graphical display system to hand over display of the data and signal states from one display to another display in accordance with the location assessment.

30. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said processing system integrates the radar arrangement data, status information for at least one taxiway, and the signal states of landing and take-off runway lights and further sensor components into processed data having a standard format; and

said integrated graphical display system displays the processed data in at least one of a radar video and fully synthesized display.

31. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 30, wherein:

the radar arrangement data are integrated with plot-extraction;

the radar arrangement data, the status information and the signal states are integrated through data fusion and sensor correlation; and

the standard format for the processed data is a fully digitized format.

32. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a flat panel display having a screen diagonal exceeding 19 inches for displaying the radar video and the video display.

33. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 32, wherein said flat panel display comprises a touchscreen provided with switching elements, said switching elements forming at least a part of said input for inputting the signal state commands.

34. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a detection system for outputting data relating to airborne aircraft movements to said processing system.

35. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 34, wherein said detection system comprises a differential global positioning system.

36. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a maintenance computer with a monitor for processing and displaying required maintenance and repair tasks and light failures.

37. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of ground traffic signal devices comprises lights of an airport lighting system, said lights comprising EPROMS that enable the signal state commands to address said lights individually.

38. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an airport data transmission system for providing communication paths between said processing system, said radar arrangement, said plurality of ground traffic signal devices, said integral graphical display system, and said input.

39. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 38, wherein said airport data transmission system comprises at least one of glass-fiber transmission lines, coaxial cables and twisted pair cables, and is of redundant design.

40. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 1,

further comprising an automatic docking system including an optical detection system that detects the positions of the aircraft and outputs position detection signals;

and

wherein said processing system integrates the position detection signals with the data and the signal states.

41. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 40, wherein said optical detection system comprises at least one of raster cameras, laser ranging devices and transponder identification units.

42. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 40, wherein said processing system integrates the position detection signals with the data and the signal states through data fusion and sensor correlation into processed data having a standard format.

43. The airport surface movement guidance and control system as claimed in claim 40, wherein said processing system generates parking position selection, occupancy and status messages for the aircraft on the basis of stored flight plan data, the status messages being output to said docking system and to said integrated graphical display system.