Assessing feasibility of an aircraft trajectory

• US 9,196,165 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2014
• Issued: 11/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: La Civita, Marco, Vilaplana, Miguel
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lee, Tyler J
• Application Number:
  US14/551,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20150170523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 365 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3- 18, 701 23- 27, 701120-122, 701/400
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0005 with arrangements to save energy
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0212 with means for defining a desired trajectory involving a plurality of land vehicles G05D1/0287
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/101 specially adapted for aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• 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 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0095 Aspects of air-traffic control not provided for in the other subgroups of this main group

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method of assessing the feasibility of a desired four-dimensional trajectory to be flown by an aircraft. The method comprises converting a description of the desired trajectory into a kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory, and providing a trajectory computation engine with the kinematic description of aircraft intent, aircraft performance data that describes the performance of the aircraft and atmospheric data that describes the atmospheric conditions along the desired trajectory, and using the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the aircraft performance data and the atmospheric data, and reporting whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of assessing the feasibility of a desired four-dimensional trajectory to be flown by an aircraft, comprising:

obtaining a description of the desired four-dimensional trajectory;

obtaining performance data from an aircraft performance model that describes the performance of the aircraft;

obtaining atmospheric data from an atmospheric model that describes the atmospheric conditions along the desired trajectory;

converting the description of the desired trajectory into a kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory; and

providing a trajectory computation engine with the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data, and using the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data, and reporting whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining an initial mass of the aircraft and wherein providing a trajectory computation engine comprises providing the initial mass of the aircraft to the trajectory computation engine, and using the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data, the atmospheric data and the initial mass of the aircraft, and reporting whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a trajectory computation engine comprises using the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate a computed four-dimensional trajectory, and comparing the computed trajectory with the desired trajectory to determine whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, if the desired trajectory was not calculated, reporting why it was not possible to calculate the desired trajectory.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein reporting why it was not possible to calculate the desired trajectory comprises reporting what part of a flight envelope is exceeded.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein converting the description of the desired trajectory into the kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory comprises converting the description of the desired trajectory into a time sequence of geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein using the trajectory computation engine further comprises converting the time sequence of geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles into three time sequences of aircraft intent instructions relating to geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein attempting to calculate a trajectory that corresponds to the desired trajectory comprises converting the kinematic description of aircraft intent into an operational description of aircraft intent, by:

generating candidate aircraft intents;

forming a cost function for each candidate aircraft intent having a cost function score;

evolving the candidate aircraft intents using an evolutionary algorithm that optimizes the cost function scores; and

providing a description of the aircraft intent with the best cost function score.

9. A system for assessing the feasibility of a desired four-dimensional trajectory to be flown by an aircraft, the system comprising a computer, a trajectory computation engine, and a memory for a computer program that when executed causes the computer to:

obtain a description of the desired four-dimensional trajectory;

obtain performance data from an aircraft performance model that describes the performance of the aircraft;

obtain atmospheric data from an atmospheric model that describes the atmospheric conditions along the desired trajectory;

convert the description of the desired trajectory into a kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory; and

provide the trajectory computation engine with the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data, and use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data; and

report whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer is further caused to obtain an initial mass of the aircraft and provide the initial mass of the aircraft to the trajectory computation engine, and use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data, the atmospheric data and the initial mass of the aircraft, and report whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer is further caused to use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate a computed four-dimensional trajectory, and compare the computed trajectory with the desired trajectory to determine whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the computer is further caused to, if the desired trajectory was not calculated, report why it was not possible to calculate the desired trajectory.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein reporting why it was not possible to calculate the desired trajectory comprises reporting what part of a flight envelope is exceeded.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein converting the description of the desired trajectory into the kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory comprises converting the description of the desired trajectory into a time sequence of geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein using the trajectory computation engine by the computer further comprises converting the time sequence of geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles into three time sequences of aircraft intent instructions relating to geometric altitudes, ground speeds and geometric bearing angles.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein using the trajectory engine to attempt to calculate a trajectory that corresponds to the desired trajectory comprises using the trajectory engine to convert the kinematic description of aircraft intent into an operational description of aircraft intent, by:

generating candidate aircraft intents;

forming a cost function for each candidate aircraft intent having a cost function score;

evolving the candidate aircraft intents using an evolutionary algorithm that optimises the cost function scores; and

providing a description of the aircraft intent with the best cost function score.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for assessing the feasibility of a desired four-dimensional trajectory to be flown by an aircraft, the computer readable medium comprising a computer program that when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

obtain a description of the desired four-dimensional trajectory;

obtain performance data from an aircraft performance model that describes the performance of the aircraft;

obtain atmospheric data from an atmospheric model that describes the atmospheric conditions along the desired trajectory;

convert the description of the desired trajectory into a kinematic description of aircraft intent that corresponds to the desired trajectory; and

provide to a trajectory computation engine, the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data, and use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data and the atmospheric data; and

report whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer is further caused to obtain an initial mass of the aircraft and provide the initial mass of the aircraft to the trajectory computation engine, and use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate the desired trajectory from the kinematic description of aircraft intent, the performance data, the atmospheric data and the initial mass of the aircraft, and report whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer is further caused to use the trajectory computation engine to attempt to calculate a computed four-dimensional trajectory, and compare the computed trajectory with the desired trajectory to determine whether or not the desired trajectory was calculated.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer is further caused to, if the desired trajectory was not calculated, report why it was not possible to calculate the desired trajectory.