Aircraft tracking using low cost tagging as a discriminator

• US 7,965,227 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2009
• Issued: 06/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ERA as (Omnipol as)
• Original Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Evers, Carl, Kozhevnikov, Vadim
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US12/390,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20090201191A1
• Time in Patent Office: 849 Days
• Field of Search: 342/32, 342/145, 342/454, 342/456, 342/465, 701/120, 701/207
• US Class Current: 342/145
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/878 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/916 Airport surface monitoring [ASDE]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06

Abstract

A simplified multilateration and ADS-B Surveillance System is used, to perform tagging for the FAA Low Cost Ground Surveillance program. This system may also be used as the foundation for a full multilateration system, if a customer wants to upgrade. The present invention uses just one active transmitter/receiver unit as opposed to multiple passive receivers. The present invention captures UF 5 and DF 5 data, thus providing Mode A identification, which then acts as the key to obtaining the call sign from a data fusion packages—thus making it an affordable and marketable product for small to medium-sized airports.

Claims

1. A method of tagging vehicle identification data to vehicle surveillance data, comprising the steps of:

receiving a vehicle position data from a vehicle tracking system;

receiving vehicle identification data from a radio signal from the vehicle;

correlating the vehicle identification data to the vehicle position data by;

determining an ellipse of position of the vehicle based at least on travel time of the radio signal, and

identifying the vehicle based on the ellipse of position of the vehicle and a database of possible vehicle locations; and

outputting the vehicle position data tagged with the vehicle identification data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of receiving vehicle identification data from a radio signal from the vehicle comprises the steps of:

generating an interrogation signal from a transmitter having a known location; and

receiving at a receiver having a known location, a response signal from a vehicle transponder in response to the interrogation signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of determining an ellipse of position of the vehicle based at least on travel time of the radio signal comprises the step of:

measuring a time delay between the generation of the interrogation signal and receipt of the response signal to determine a round-trip transit time; and

generating an ellipse of position representing a possible location of the vehicle at some point on the ellipse.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of identifying the vehicle based on the ellipse of position of the vehicle and a database of possible vehicle locations comprises the steps of:

retrieving, from the database, a map of potential vehicle position areas;

superimposing the ellipse of position over the map to determine which potential vehicle positions areas correspond to a possible location of the vehicle; and

determining vehicle position as a position where potential vehicle position and possible vehicle position coincide.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the vehicle comprises one or more of an aircraft or an airport ground vehicle, and the map of potential vehicle position areas comprises a map of airport runways, taxiways, and parking areas.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the transponder comprises a Mode S transponder.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the known location of the transmitter and the known location of the receiver coincide and the ellipse of position of the vehicle comprises a circle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle comprises one or more of an aircraft or an airport ground vehicle and the vehicle tracking system comprises a Surface Movement Radar (SMR) outputting vehicle position data as a surveillance interface message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of outputting the vehicle position data tagged with the vehicle identification data comprises the steps of:

receiving the surveillance interface message including vehicle position data

inserting the vehicle identification data into an identification field of the surveillance interface message to produced a tagged surveillance interface message; and

outputting the tagged surveillance interface message.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the transponder outputs a Mode A identification data in response to interrogation by the transmitter.

11. A system for tagging vehicle identification data to vehicle surveillance data including vehicle position data from a vehicle tracking system, the system comprising:

a data input for receiving vehicle position data from a vehicle tracking system;

a radio for receiving vehicle identification data from a radio signal from the vehicle;

a computer system for correlating the vehicle identification data to the vehicle position data by determining an ellipse of position of the vehicle based at least on travel time of the radio signal, and identifying the vehicle based on the ellipse of position of the vehicle and a database of possible vehicle locations; and

a data output for outputting the vehicle position data tagged with the vehicle identification data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said radio for receiving vehicle identification data from a radio signal from the vehicle further comprises:

a radio transmitter portion having a known location, for generating an interrogation signal; and

a radio receiving portion having a known location, for receiving the response signal from a vehicle transponder.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the computer system determines an ellipse of position of the vehicle based at least on travel time of the radio signal by measuring a time delay between the generation of the interrogation signal and receipt of the response signal to determine a round-trip transit time, and generating an ellipse of position representing a possible location of the vehicle at some point on the ellipse.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the computer system identifies the vehicle based on the ellipse of position of the vehicle and a database of possible vehicle locations by retrieving, from the database, a map of potential vehicle position areas, superimposing the ellipse of position over the map to determine which potential vehicle positions areas correspond to a possible location of the vehicle, determining vehicle position as a position where potential vehicle position and possible vehicle position coincide.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the vehicle comprises one or more of an aircraft or an airport ground vehicle, and the map of potential vehicle position areas comprises a map of airport runways, taxiways, and parking areas.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the transponder comprises a Mode S transponder.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the known location of the transmitter and the known location of the receiver coincide and the ellipse of position of the vehicle comprises a circle.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle comprises one or more of an aircraft or an airport ground vehicle and the vehicle tracking system comprises a Surface Movement Radar (SMS) outputting vehicle position data as a surveillance interface message.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the data output outputting the vehicle position data tagged with the vehicle identification data receives the surveillance interface message including vehicle position data, inserts the vehicle identification data into an identification field of the surveillance interface message to produced a tagged surveillance interface message, and outputs the tagged surveillance interface message.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the transponder outputs a Mode A identification data in response to interrogation by the transmitter.