Patent Application
20230202673
The present disclosure relates generally to mishap logging systems and more particularly to logging and maintaining data following a manned or unmanned system (e.g., aircraft, land, sea and/or space vehicle) mishap.
Manned aircraft contain flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders (aka black boxes) for preserving data in case of a mishap (e.g., a crash). These black boxes contain voice and data recorders for recording hundreds of different statuses and inputs during a flight. If a mishap occurs, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recovers the black box and uses the data stored within to support an investigation to determine the cause of the mishap. In the case of an unmanned aircraft system, the remote control station portion of the unmanned aircraft system where the pilot controls the aircraft does not typically have aircraft data/voice recorders. This creates a critical data collection and information gap when investigating an unmanned aircraft system mishap.
There are various forms of aircraft mishaps that range in seriousness from a catastrophic event resulting in a loss of aircraft or loss of life (e.g., crash) to less serious events that result in minor damage to property. Similar mishaps may occur in other manned or autonomous platforms such as autonomous cars, sea and space vehicles. Thus, while the methods and techniques described herein are well suited for use with unmanned aerial systems, it should be appreciated that these techniques are not limited in terms of their applicability to other systems including manned and autonomous vehicles whether on land, sea or space. For the sake of simplicity and ease of explanation, the below discussion will focus on aircraft mishap logging systems; however, as discussed above the same concepts are applicable to a wide variety of non-aerial systems and platforms.
Investigating a mishap involving an unmanned aircraft system is more complicated than performing the same analysis concerning a traditional manned aircraft. With unmanned aircraft the aircraft sometimes acts in an autonomous mode and other times is flown directly (or managed) by a remote control station sometimes located thousands of miles from the aircraft. The aircraft, data links, and control station all comprise the single unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Because of this, the cause of a mishap requires data/information from geographically separated UAS subsystems to be gathered and stitched together for analysis. For example, the ground station may direct a command to the aircraft to fly a specific navigation route when a mishap occurs. Determining the mishap cause requires data from both the aircraft and the control station to be available to the mishap investigation team.
While manned aircraft include black boxes for storing and protecting flight data, control stations providing command and control (C2) of unmanned aircraft do not have black boxes. Black boxes interface with avionics systems located within the aircraft and record key data. There are no comparable systems in unmanned aircraft, because the control stations often use commercial internet technology (IT) systems and data affecting the flight is stored in different physical locations.
The present disclosure provides a system and method for capturing and preserving mishap investigation data using commercial off the shelf (COTS) internet technology (IT) equipment in a way compliant with airworthiness certification requirements for unmanned aircraft systems.
In a general embodiment, the present disclosure provides a system and method for capturing and preserving data sent to/from computer workstations of a remote cockpit for an unmanned aircraft, cockpit data including user inputs and data displayed from the computer workstations, and aircraft C2 exchanged between the control station and aircraft.
While a number of features are described herein with respect to embodiments of the invention; features described with respect to a given embodiment also may be employed in connection with other embodiments. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative embodiments of the invention. These embodiments are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed. Other objects, advantages, and novel features according to aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The annexed drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, show various aspects of the invention in which similar reference numerals are used to indicate the same or similar parts in the various views.
The present disclosure is now described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, each element with a reference number is similar to other elements with the same reference number independent of any letter designation following the reference number. In the text, a reference number with a specific letter designation following the reference number refers to the specific element with the number and letter designation and a reference number without a specific letter designation refers to all elements with the same reference number independent of any letter designation following the reference number in the drawings.
The present disclosure provides a system and method that captures cockpit data. The cockpit data includes user inputs (e.g., mouse inputs, keyboard inputs, etc.) and display outputs (i.e., data displaying to the user via displays). The cockpit data is captured and stored during a sortie (i.e., a flight) and the cockpit data is preserved (also referred to as impounded) when a mishap occurred during the sortie.
In the embodiment shown in
In one embodiment, the shadow computer workstation 16 monitors an aircraft sortie and includes a display 40 and circuitry 42. The circuitry 42 of the shadow computer workstation 16 is configured to detect display data 44 that is output from the display 40 of the shadow computer workstation 16 during the sortie. The circuitry 42 also causes shadow workstation data 46 to be stored as part of the cockpit data 36. The shadow workstation data 46 includes the display data 44 from the shadow computer workstation 16.
The system 10 may also include an MCS 20 that is communicatively coupled to the cockpit 13 and that is stored in a room 50.
As described above, the system 10 may also include a SAN 18. The SAN 18 stores the cockpit data 36 in a sortie folder 52 stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium (also referred to as memory) 54. When a mishap occurs during a sortie, the SAN 18 restricts access to the sortie folder 52 storing the cockpit data 36 for the sortie that the mishap is associated with.
The computer workstations 14 may additionally including memory 58 including random-access memory (RAM) 60 and non-transitory computer readable memory (also referred to as a hard drive) 62. When a mishap occurs during the sortie, the circuitry 26 of the computer workstation may capture a state of the RAM 60 and images of hard drives 62 of the computer workstations 14.
As described above, when a mishap occurs, storage of the cockpit data 36 is maintained and impounded as part of the mishap investigation. For example, the cockpit data 36 may be marked as read only to prevent editing or deletion of the cockpit data 36. The cockpit data 36 may also be moved to an archive for storage when a mishap occurs. Conversely, when a mishap does not occur, the circuitry 26 of the computer workstations 14 may cause the cockpit data 36 to be purged. For example, the cockpit data 36 may be deleted.
In the embodiment shown in
In decision block 108, a check is performed to determine if the sortie has finished (e.g., the plan has landed). If the sortie has not finished, then processing returns to process block 102. If the sortie has completed, then processing moves to decision block 110. In decision block 110, a check is performed to determine if a mishap occurred during the sortie. If a mishap occurred, then processing moves to process block 112 and storage of the cockpit data 36 is maintained. Following process block 112, the flight control string data may be preserved and collected in process block 113. Conversely, if a mishap has not occurred, then processing may move to process block 114 and the cockpit data 36 may be discarded.
In additional to the user inputs and display outputs, the cockpit data 36 may include messages sent to and received from the unmanned aircraft 12. For example, the cockpit data 36 may include data sent from the computer workstations 26 of the cockpit 13 to a backend server to a datalink with the aircraft 12.
In the embodiment shown in
Impounding the cockpit 124 may include leaving each of the computer workstations 26 of the cockpit 13 powered on, disconnecting each of the computer workstations 26 of the cockpit 13 from a network (e.g., isolating the computer workstations 26 from wired and wireless communications from other computer devices), and restricting physical access to each of the computer workstations 26 of the cockpit 13.
Impounding the shadow computer workstation 126 may include leaving the shadow computer workstation 16 powered on, disconnecting the shadow computer workstation 16 from the network, and restricting physical access to the shadow computer workstation 16. Impounding the MCS room 128 may include restricting and documenting access to the room 50 of the MCS 20. Impounding the SAN 130 may include restricting access to the sortie folder 52.
Capturing a state of computer workstation RAM 132 may include copying contents of the RAM of the computer workstations to non-volatile memory (e.g., removable memory such as a USB drive). Similarly, capturing images of computer workstation hard drives 134 may include copying contents of the hard drives of the computer workstations to the removable memory.
As shown in the embodiment depicted in
The computer program 70 may be embodied as computer executable code stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program may be written using any suitable computer language.
The computer workstations 26 and shadow computer workstation 16 may be any suitable computer device suitable for performing the method 100 described herein. Similarly, the display 24, 40 may be any suitable display device for outputting visual content.
The SAN 18 may be embodied as one or more servers configured to receive and store data from the cockpit 13.
The cockpit may be one of multiple (e.g., two or ten) cockpits located in a mission control system (MCS). The MCS may be a server room that sends data to the cockpits and receives data from the cockpits.
In one embodiment, a cockpit 13 manages a flight of one unmanned aircraft (e.g., one aircraft per cockpit). The cockpit 13 may refer to a controlled access room including four operator positions (e.g., a pilot, a sensor operator, a spare (backup), and a monitor). Each operator position may include a computer workstation 26. The flight control string data may refer to all user inputs and display data for each operator position in the cockpit. The flight control string data may also include data from shadow workstations (i.e., workstations that were monitoring but not controlling the aircraft).
The unmanned aircraft 12 may be any remote controlled aircraft, such as a predator drone.
The circuitry 26, 42 may have various implementations. For example, the circuitry 26, 42 may include any suitable device, such as a processor (e.g., CPU), programmable circuit, integrated circuit, non-volatile memory and I/O circuits, an application specific integrated circuit, microcontroller, complex programmable logic device, other programmable circuits, or the like. The circuitry 26, 42 may also include a non-transitory computer readable medium, such as random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), or any other suitable medium. Instructions for performing the method described below may be stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium and executed by the circuitry 26, 42. The circuitry 26, 42 may be communicatively coupled to the computer readable medium and network interface through a system bus, mother board, or using any other suitable structure known in the art.
As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the computer readable medium (memory) 54, 58 may be, for example, one or more of a buffer, a flash memory, a hard drive, a removable media, a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, a random access memory (RAM), or other suitable device. In a typical arrangement, the computer readable medium 54, 58 may include a non-volatile memory for long term data storage and a volatile memory that functions as system memory for the processor 54, 58. The computer readable medium 54, 58 may exchange data with the circuitry over a data bus. Accompanying control lines and an address bus between the computer readable medium 54, 58 and the circuitry also may be present. The computer readable medium 54, 58 is considered a non-transitory computer readable medium.
All ranges and ratio limits disclosed in the specification and claims may be combined in any manner. Unless specifically stated otherwise, references to “a,” “an,” and/or “the” may include one or more than one, and that reference to an item in the singular may also include the item in the plural.
Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a certain embodiment or embodiments, equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described elements (components, assemblies, devices, compositions, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such elements are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any element which performs the specified function of the described element (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary embodiment or embodiments of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been described above with respect to only one or more of several illustrated embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other embodiments, as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.
This disclosure was made with Government support under contract number FA8620-15-D-3009, awarded by the Department of Defense. The Government has certain rights in the disclosure.
