G08G5/34

Systems and Methods for Restricting Drone Airspace Access
20170243494 · 2017-08-24 ·

Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for providing conditional access for a drone for accessing a restricted area. Conditional access information associated with conditional access restrictions for the restricted area may be received by the drone. The drone may compare the received conditional access information to one or more access parameters for the drone. The drone may access the restricted area based on the comparison of the received conditional access information and the access parameter. A drone may take corrective action when the received conditional access information does not permit access to the restricted area based on the access parameter for the drone.

DYNAMIC AIRCRAFT THREAT CONTROLLER MANAGER APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS

The DYNAMIC AIRCRAFT THREAT CONTROLLER MANAGER APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (DATCM) transforms flight profile information, terrain, weather/atmospheric data and flight parameter data via DATCM components into comprehensive hazard avoidance optimized flight plans. Comprehensive hazard avoidance includes synergistic comprehensive turbulence and airfoil-specific icing data. In one implementation, the DATCM comprises a processor and a memory disposed in communication with the processor and storing processor-issuable instructions to receive anticipated flight plan parameter data, obtain weather data based on the flight plan parameter data, obtain atmospheric data based on the flight plan parameter data, and determine a plurality of four-dimensional grid points based on the flight plan parameter data. The DATCM may then determine comprehensive hazards mappings. With (near) real-time comprehensive hazard information and/or predictive turbulence/icing forecast specific to airfoil type and/or profile parameters, the DATCM may allow aircraft to avoid areas where comprehensive hazard is greater than a predetermined threshold and/or avoid areas where turbulence/icing may occur.

FLIGHT PLANNING AND COMMUNICATION

The invention described herein provides a flight crew with an easier, more intuitive, system and method to create a flight plan. A flight planning system is presented for navigation of an aircraft utilizing a touch screen display device mounted in an aircraft cockpit spanning the width and height of the instrument panel. The system provides navigational views, an interactive map, charts, a radio frequency component, a weather component, and a virtual flight plan. A flight planning method is presented that uses an interactive map on a touch screen device in an aircraft cockpit. The method accepts user inputs and displays a desired flight plan on the map. A method for providing a chart on a touch screen device is presented that includes presenting a list of menu options on a touch screen mounted in an aircraft cockpit. The method provides the flight crew with heads-up operation, providing greater situational awareness.

System and method for optimizing an aircraft trajectory

Systems and methods of the present invention are provided to generate a plurality of flight trajectories that do not conflict with other aircraft in a local area. Interventions by an air traffic control system help prevent collisions between aircraft, but these interventions can also cause an aircraft to substantially deviate from the pilot's intended flight trajectory, which burns fuels, wastes time, etc. Systems and methods of the present invention can assign a standard avoidance interval to other aircraft in the area such that a pilot's aircraft does not receive an intervention by an air traffic control system. Systems and methods of the present invention also generate a plurality of conflict-free flight trajectories such that a pilot or an automated system may select the most desirable flight trajectory for fuel efficiency, speed, and other operational considerations, etc.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GROUND EFFECT CEILING LIMIT DISPLAY

Systems and methods for displaying ground effect ceiling limit values associated with an operation of a mobile platform on a display are provided. The method includes receiving a preference for the display of the ground effect ceiling limit values, and determining a gross weight of the mobile platform. The method includes based on the preference, determining, with a processor, an air temperature associated with the operation of the mobile platform. The method also includes based on the gross weight and the air temperature, determining with the processor, an in ground effect limit value and an out of ground effect limit value. The method includes displaying the determined in ground effect limit value and the determined out of ground effect limit value on the display.

AIRCRAFT CONTROL SYSTEMS
20170213467 · 2017-07-27 ·

A method of controlling an aircraft in the event of pilot incapacity includes detecting, using at least one sensor, the occurrence of an event relating to a pilot's capacity to control the aircraft, determining whether the event justifies a controlled takeover of the aircraft from the pilot, asserting a controlled takeover of the aircraft from the pilot if it has been determined that a controlled takeover is justified, and executing a controlled landing of the aircraft without assistance of the pilot.

Navigation aid method based on meteorological conditions

A navigation aid method for an aircraft flying a reference trajectory between a point of departure and a point of arrival subject to a field of wind vectors comprises: decomposing the reference trajectory into a plurality of discrete waypoints Pi, loading meteorological data comprising the field of wind vectors, iterating the following steps N times, to generate an improved trajectory: for each waypoint Pi named current point, determining a reference plane, determining an orthonormal reference frame, determining a wind curl ((custom characterW).sub.Pi), determining a sign of the projection of the wind curl on axis zi ((custom characterW).sub.zi .sub.Pi), determining a direction of displacement from the current point Pi to a new current waypoint Pi, determining a line of displacement, determining a displacement distance, determining the new current waypoint, determining a new trajectory, assigning the new waypoints Pi determined in the preceding iteration to the waypoints Pi for the next iteration.

Travel path identification based upon statistical relationships between path costs

Various technologies pertaining to dynamically identifying travel segments to be taken by a traveler traveling in a region are described herein, where observations about travel segments in the region are sparse and subject to alteration. A computer-implemented graph can be loaded into a memory, where the computer-implemented graph is representative of the region. The computer-implemented graph includes nodes that represent locations in the region and edges that represent travel segments of the region, where the edges have costs assigned thereto, and further where there is a defined statistical relationship between the costs. When an observation about a travel path is received, using the computer-implemented graph, inferences can be made about costs of traversing other travel paths in the region.

GENERATING A FLIGHT PATH WHEN THE UAV IS OFFLINE BASED ON TERRAIN DATA

Systems and methods for generating flight plans for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A new flight plan is built for a UAV based on terrain data after a first flight plan is interrupted. The new flight plan is based on terrain data, where the level of detail and size of the terrain data is optimized for resource efficiency. Onboard battery levels are also factored into the calculation of the new path.

SAFETY ASSURANCE FOR PATH PLANNERS

Techniques for establishing the sufficiency of a path planner to avoid multiple obstacles in planning a path from a starting location to a destination location is presented. The techniques can include: iterating, until a stopping condition occurs: obtaining, from the path planner, a path from the starting location to the destination location; representing the path from the starting location to the destination location as a disjunction of logical terms; conjoining the disjunction of terms to a conjunction of terms representing previously considered paths; determining a satisfiability condition of the conjunction of terms; and for a positive satisfiability condition, adding at least one corresponding obstacle of the plurality of obstacles to the path planner; and providing an indication of sufficiency of the path planner to avoid the obstacles in planning a path from the starting location to the destination location based on the stopping condition.