Devices and methods for filtering terrain and obstacle anti-collision alerts for aircraft

• US 8,306,678 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2008
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Fleury, Stéphane, Marty, Nicolas, Percier, Julia
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): PIPALA, EDWARD J
• Application Number:
  US12/047,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20080306639A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,699 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701 3- 9, 701/14, 701/200, 701/204, 701205-213, 701/223, 701/300, 701/301, 701/120, 701/400, 701/408, 701/409, 701/466, 701/467, 701/468, 701/487, 701532-536, 340/945, 340/961, 340/963, 340971-980, 340988-990, 3409951-99512, 34099517-99522, 34099524-99525, 340/995.28, 244/75.1, 244/76.R, 244/175, 244180-194
• US Class Current: 701/9
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0078 for monitoring traffic from the aircraft radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0086 for monitoring terrain radar or analogous systems specially adapted for terrain avoidance G01S13/935

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device and methods for filtering anti-collision alerts for aircraft having a locating system charting the position of the aircraft and estimating the precision of its position. A navigation system of the aircraft calculates at least the actual speed of the aircraft, the speed instruction and a first deviation between the instruction and the actual speed, and the deviation being compared with a first reference overshoot threshold. An anti-collision system generates alerts. An alarms manager of the aircraft centralizes the alerts transmitted by the terrain anti-collision equipment of the aircraft to the crew. The alerts each posses a coding of the danger level, and the danger levels form part of a first predetermined set. The alert filter according to the invention filters sets of alerts according to the coding of their danger level.

Claims

1. A method of filtering anti-collision alerts for an aircraft, the aircraft having a terrain anti-collision equipment configured to transmit alerts to an alarm manager of the aircraft through an alert filter, the alerts each possessing a coding corresponding to one of at least three danger levels including:

a first level corresponding to a low risk of dangerousness indicating a presence, in proximity to the aircraft, of obstacles not constituting an immediate danger;

a second level corresponding to a more significant dangerousness level advising gaining altitude for the aircraft within a given time span; and

a third level corresponding to a high risk of dangerousness advising undertaking an action other than the action corresponding to the second level, the method comprising;

evaluating a situation of the aircraft;

determining if a corridor defined along a predefined ideal trajectory is crossed by the aircraft according to the result of the evaluation;

after it is determined that the corridor is not crossed, selectively filtering out alerts of the first level and the second level by the alert filter according to multiple criteria transmitted by various systems for navigation, guidance, or positioning of the aircraft and allowing transmission of alerts of the third level and unfiltered alerts of the first level and the second level to the alarm manager of the aircraft; and

after it is determined that the corridor is crossed, disabling the filtering and allowing transmission of all alerts to the alarm manager of the aircraft.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the situation of the aircraft comprises evaluating a position and the precision of the position by a locating system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the situation of the aircraft comprises verifying the information regarding operation and integrity of navigation and guidance systems.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the aircraft comprises:

a system configured to guide the aircraft and to provide information including an actual trajectory of the aircraft, a theoretical trajectory, a vertical deviation, and a lateral deviation,

wherein the evaluation of the situation of the aircraft comprises analyzing vertical and lateral angular deviations of the actual trajectory with respect to the theoretical trajectory, and the filtering comprises filtering an alert as a function of its danger level when the vertical and lateral deviations do not overshoot respectively a vertical and a lateral threshold value.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation of the situation of the aircraft comprises calculating a deviation between an actual speed of the aircraft and a speed instruction, said deviation being compared with a speed overshoot threshold, and the filtering comprises filtering an alert as a function of its danger level when the speed deviation is lower than the speed threshold value.

6. The method according to claim 1, the aircraft possessing an avoidance capability measured on the basis at least of the type of aircraft, of its weight, and of its speed and comprising a topographic database and a calculation of a profile of the terrain overflown, the said profile being calculated on a space covered by possible trajectories of the aircraft in a given angle during the given time span on the basis of obstacles referenced in the topographic database, the calculation of a collision criterion on the basis of the evaluation of the avoidance capability of the aircraft and of the terrain profile overflown being calculated, wherein the evaluation of the situation of the aircraft comprises measuring the collision criterion, and the filtering comprises comparing this criterion with a predefined threshold value.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the filtering of the alerts of the first level is carried out when the uncertainty in the position is less than a predefined margin and a vertical and a lateral threshold values are not overshot.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the filtering of the alerts of the second level is carried out when at least the uncertainty in the position is less than a predefined margin and a vertical, a lateral, and a speed threshold values are not overshot.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the alerts are audible alerts.

10. An anti-collision alerting system for an aircraft comprising:

a locating system charting a position of the aircraft at each instant and estimating the precision of the position;

a navigation system of the aircraft calculating at least an actual speed of the aircraft and speed instruction;

an anti-collision system generating alerts, said alerts each possessing a coding corresponding to at least one of three danger levels including;

a first level corresponding to a low risk of dangerousness indicating a presence, in proximity to the aircraft, of obstacles not constituting an immediate danger;

a second level corresponding to a more significant dangerousness level advising gaining altitude for the aircraft within a given time span; and

a third level corresponding to a high risk of dangerousness advising undertaking an action other than the action corresponding to the second level;

an alert filter configured to;

after it is determined, according to a deviation of the position or the speed of the aircraft, that the aircraft does not cross a corridor defined along a predetermined ideal trajectory, selectively filter out alerts of the first level and the second level according to multiple criteria transmitted by various systems for navigation, guidance, or positioning of the aircraft and allow transmission of alerts of the third level and unfiltered alerts of the first level and the second level to an alarm manager of the aircraft; and

after it is determined that the corridor is crossed, disable the filtering and allow transmission of all alerts to the alarm manager; and

the alarm manager of the aircraft centralizing the unfiltered alerts transmitted by the terrain anti-collision equipment of the aircraft through the alert filter.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the system comprises at least three alert filters configured to filter the alerts according to the coding of the danger level.

12. The system according to claim 11, comprising a function for comparing the alerts filtered by the three filters, and in the event of non-agreement of the three filterings of an alert, the function transmits the alert to the alarm manager.

13. The system according to claim 11, comprising a function for comparing the alerts filtered by the three filters, wherein in the event of non-agreement of the three filterings of an alert, the function transmits the alert to the alarm manager if at least two filters have not filtered the alert.