Patent Application
20160090193
The present invention generally relates to a system for improving a pilot's ability to complete an approach to a runway and more particularly to a system for displaying information to support a pilot's ability to fly a stabilized approach.
The approach to landing and touch down on the runway of an aircraft is probably the most challenging task a pilot undertakes during normal operation. To perform the landing properly, the aircraft approaches the runway within an envelope of attitude, course, speed, and rate of descent limits. The course limits include, for example, both lateral limits and glide slope limits. An approach outside of this envelope can result in an undesirable positioning of the aircraft with respect to the runway, resulting in possibly discontinuance of the landing attempt.
Synthetic vision systems are currently certified for situation awareness purposes in commercial and business aviation applications with no additional landing credit for going below published minimums. Such a display system, when used in conjunction with flight symbology such as on a head-up display system, is known to improve a pilot's overall situational awareness and reduce flight technical errors.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for improving the ability to fly stabilized approaches including displaying information supporting a pilot's ability to fly a stabilized approach. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.
A system and method are provided for displaying information allowing a pilot to fly a stabilized approach to landing.
In an exemplary embodiment, a system for assisting a pilot of an aircraft to fly a stable approach to a landing comprises a processor configured to determine an aircraft energy state of the aircraft; and a display configured to display a first symbol indicating a speed change rate required to obtain a stable approach; display a second symbol on a runway symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the aircraft energy state determined by the processor; and display a third symbol on the runway symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the desired energy state.
In another exemplary embodiment, a system for assisting a pilot of an aircraft to fly a stable approach to a runway comprises a processor configured to determine an aircraft energy state of the aircraft, the aircraft energy state determined from at least one of an aircraft airspeed, an aircraft altitude above the runway, and an aircraft distance to the runway; compare the aircraft energy state with a desired energy state; determine from the comparison if a threshold is exceeded; determine an airspeed required by the aircraft to obtain a stable approach; determine a position on the runway where the aircraft would touchdown if the aircraft energy state is maintained; and determine a position on the runway where the aircraft would touch down if the desired stable approach energy state is obtained; and a display configured to display an airspeed scale including a first symbol indicating the speed required to obtain a stable approach; display a runway symbol including a second symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the aircraft energy state; and display a third symbol on the runway symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the desired energy state.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, a method for assisting a pilot of an aircraft to fly a stable approach to a landing, comprising determining via a processor an aircraft energy state of the aircraft; comparing via the processor the aircraft energy state with a desired energy state; if the results of the comparison exceed a threshold displaying via a display a first symbol indicating a speed required to obtain a stable approach; displaying via the display a second symbol on a runway symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the aircraft energy state; and displaying via the display a third symbol on the runway symbol indicating where the aircraft would touch down at the desired energy state.
The present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and
During the course of this description, like numbers may be used to identify like elements according to the different figures that illustrate the various exemplary embodiments.
The following detailed description is merely illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the embodiments of the subject matter or the application and uses of such embodiments. Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, brief summary, or the following detailed description.
Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Some of the embodiments and implementations are described above in terms of functional and/or logical block components (or modules) and various processing steps. However, it should be appreciated that such block components (or modules) may be realized by any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention. For example, an embodiment of a system or a component may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments described herein are merely exemplary implementations.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. The word “exemplary” is used exclusively herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Any of the above devices are exemplary, non-limiting examples of a computer readable storage medium.
The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal Any of the above devices are exemplary, non-limiting examples of a computer readable storage medium
In this document, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Numerical ordinals such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc. simply denote different singles of a plurality and do not imply any order or sequence unless specifically defined by the claim language. The sequence of the text in any of the claims does not imply that process steps must be performed in a temporal or logical order according to such sequence unless it is specifically defined by the language of the claim. The process steps may be interchanged in any order without departing from the scope of the invention as long as such an interchange does not contradict the claim language and is not logically nonsensical.
Although embodiments described herein are specific to aircraft display systems, it should be recognized that principles of the inventive subject matter may be applied to other vehicle display systems.
For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to graphics and image processing, navigation, flight planning, aircraft controls, aircraft data communication systems, and other functional aspects of certain systems and subsystems (and the individual operating components thereof) may not be described in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical couplings between the various elements. It should be noted that many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in an embodiment of the subject matter.
The following description refers to elements or nodes or features being “coupled” together. As used herein, unless expressly stated otherwise, “coupled” means that one element/node/feature is directly or indirectly joined to (or directly or indirectly communicates with) another element/node/feature, and not necessarily mechanically. Thus, although the drawings may depict one exemplary arrangement of elements, additional intervening elements, devices, features, or components may be present in an embodiment of the depicted subject matter. In addition, certain terminology may also be used in the following description for the purpose of reference only, and thus are not intended to be limiting.
Some applications may require more than one monitor, for example, a head down display screen, to accomplish the mission. These monitors may include a two dimensional moving map display and a three dimensional perspective display. A moving map display may include a top-down view of the aircraft, the flight plan, and the surrounding environment. Various symbols are utilized to denote navigational cues (e.g., waypoint symbols, line segments interconnecting the waypoint symbols, range rings) and nearby environmental features (e.g., terrain, weather conditions, political boundaries).
Alternate embodiments of the present invention to those described below may utilize whatever navigation system signals are available, for example a ground based navigational system, a GPS navigation aid, a flight management system, and an inertial navigation system, to dynamically calibrate and determine a precise course.
In accordance with the exemplary embodiments, a system and method are described for indicating to an aircrew (1) display elements that provides awareness of abnormal energy state and recommended actions based on the differences between current energy state and desired stable approach energy state, and (2) coordinated 2D and 3D display elements to indicate the energy states for the approach conditions. Energy state as used herein includes a combination of a plurality of factors including, for example, current speed, flight path angle, altitude, configuration of the aircraft, engine settings, and position with respect to the runway. If for example, the aircraft is approaching faster than a desired speed and higher than approach glide-slope angle relative to the approaching runway target, the current conditions are determined and an “UNSTABLE” awareness message is displayed. Simultaneously, the energy state computation analyzes the current approach configurations, such as distance to the runway, height above the touchdown point, and aircraft's ability to smoothly change/dissipate the excessive energy in order to achieve stabilized approach conditions before a threshold altitude above the touchdown point. The recommended setting is then displayed to the flight crews in the form of de-acceleration settings as a first symbology relative the current acceleration cue (second symbology) attached to the flight path marker. The settings are dynamically computed relative to the current aircraft approach conditions and target conditions for a stabilized approach configuration. Flight crews can reduce throttle settings or change configurations to satisfy the deceleration target and bring the aircraft smoothly back to the stabilized approach conditions. If the stabilized conditions cannot be achieved, a GO-AROUND warning message is issued, with various display elements on the display to be changed accordingly. The coordinated display elements, such as predicted stopping distance along the approach runway are shown on both 3D and 2D representations on the display. The 2D runway display becomes available when in final approach configurations and its coloration schemes follows that of the 3D perspective approach runway to provide a definitive understanding of the predicted landing and stopping point, runway distance remaining, and threat conditions. When a warning condition is issued, for example, GO AROUND caused by unstable approach conditions, both 3D and 2D runway borders and predicted stopping point symbology will change format, for example, become red, to bring attention to flight crews of such conditions associated with the approach runway.
Referring to
The processor 104 may be any one of numerous known general-purpose microprocessors or an application specific processor that operates in response to program instructions. In the depicted embodiment, the processor 104 includes on-board RAM (random access memory) 103, and on-board ROM (read only memory) 105. The program instructions that control the processor 104 may be stored in either or both the RAM 103 and the ROM 105. For example, the operating system software may be stored in the ROM 105, whereas various operating mode software routines and various operational parameters may be stored in the RAM 103. It will be appreciated that this is merely exemplary of one scheme for storing operating system software and software routines, and that various other storage schemes may be implemented. It will also be appreciated that the processor 104 may be implemented using various other circuits, not just a programmable processor. For example, digital logic circuits and analog signal processing circuits could also be used.
No matter how the processor 104 is specifically implemented, it is in operable communication with the terrain databases 106, the navigation databases 108, and the display device 116, and is coupled to receive various types of inertial data from the various sensors 112, and various other avionics-related data from the external data sources 114. The processor 104 is configured, in response to the inertial data and the avionics-related data, to selectively retrieve terrain data from one or more of the terrain databases 106 and navigation data from one or more of the navigation databases 108, and to supply appropriate display commands to the display device 116. The display device 116, in response to the display commands, selectively renders various types of textual, graphic, and/or iconic information. The preferred manner in which the textual, graphic, and/or iconic information are rendered by the display device 116 will be described in more detail further below. Before doing so, however, a brief description of the databases 106, 108, the sensors 112, and the external data sources 114, at least in the depicted embodiment, will be provided.
The terrain databases 106 include various types of data representative of the terrain over which the aircraft is flying, and the navigation databases 108 include various types of navigation-related data. These navigation-related data include various flight plan related data such as, for example, waypoints, distances between waypoints, headings between waypoints, data related to different airports, navigational aids, obstructions, special use airspace, political boundaries, communication frequencies, and aircraft approach information. It will be appreciated that, although the terrain databases 106 and the navigation databases 108 are, for clarity and convenience, shown as being stored separate from the processor 104, all or portions of either or both of these databases 106, 108 could be loaded into the RAM 103, or integrally formed as part of the processor 104, and/or RAM 103, and/or ROM 105. The terrain databases 106 and navigation databases 108 could also be part of a device or system that is physically separate from the system 100.
The sensors 112 may be implemented using various types of inertial sensors, systems, and or subsystems, now known or developed in the future, for supplying various types of inertial data. The inertial data may also vary, but preferably include data representative of the state of the aircraft such as, for example, aircraft speed, heading, altitude, and attitude. The number and type of external data sources 114 may also vary. For example, the external systems (or subsystems) may include, for example, a terrain avoidance and warning system (TAWS), a traffic and collision avoidance system (TCAS), a runway awareness and advisory system (RAAS), a flight director, and a navigation computer, just to name a few. However, for ease of description and illustration, only a global position system (GPS) receiver 122 is depicted in
The GPS receiver 122 is a multi-channel receiver, with each channel tuned to receive one or more of the GPS broadcast signals transmitted by the constellation of GPS satellites (not illustrated) orbiting the earth. Each GPS satellite encircles the earth two times each day, and the orbits are arranged so that at least four satellites are always within line of sight from almost anywhere on the earth. The GPS receiver 122, upon receipt of the GPS broadcast signals from at least three, and preferably four, or more of the GPS satellites, determines the distance between the GPS receiver 122 and the GPS satellites and the position of the GPS satellites. Based on these determinations, the GPS receiver 122, using a technique known as trilateration, determines, for example, aircraft position, groundspeed, and ground track angle. These data may be supplied to the processor 104, which may determine aircraft glide slope deviation therefrom. Preferably, however, the GPS receiver 122 is configured to determine, and supply data representative of, aircraft glide slope deviation to the processor 104.
The display device 116, as noted above, in response to display commands supplied from the processor 104, selectively renders various textual, graphic, and/or iconic information, and thereby supply visual feedback to the user 109. It will be appreciated that the display device 116 may be implemented using any one of numerous known display devices suitable for rendering textual, graphic, and/or iconic information in a format viewable by the user 109. Non-limiting examples of such display devices include various cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, and various flat panel displays such as various types of LCD (liquid crystal display) and TFT (thin film transistor) displays. The display device 116 may additionally be implemented as a panel mounted display, a HUD (head-up display) projection, or any one of numerous known technologies. It is additionally noted that the display device 116 may be configured as any one of numerous types of aircraft flight deck displays. For example, it may be configured as a multi-function display, a horizontal situation indicator, or a vertical situation indicator, just to name a few. In the depicted embodiment, however, the display device 116 is configured as a primary flight display (PFD).
In operation, the display system 100 is also configured to process the current flight status data for the host aircraft 206. In this regard, the sources 106, 108, 112, 114 of flight status data generate, measure, and/or provide different types of data related to the operational status of the host aircraft 206, the environment in which the host aircraft 206 is operating, flight parameters, and the like. In practice, the sources 106, 108, 112, 114 of flight status data may be realized using line replaceable units (LRUs), transducers, accelerometers, instruments, sensors, and other well-known devices. The data provided by the sources 106, 108, 112, 114 of flight status data may include, without limitation: airspeed data; groundspeed data; altitude data; attitude data, including pitch data and roll data; yaw data; geographic position data, such as GPS data; time/date information; heading information; weather information; flight path data; track data; radar altitude data; geometric altitude data; wind speed data; wind direction data; etc. The display system 100 is suitably designed to process data obtained from the sources 106, 108, 112, 114 of flight status data in the manner described in more detail herein. In particular, the display system 100 can use the flight status data of the host aircraft when rendering the ITP display.
It should be understood that
Referring to
In accordance with the exemplary embodiments, an aircraft energy state is determined from a plurality of flight parameters including airspeed, groundspeed, altitude above the runway, distance to the runway, aircraft configuration, and engine power settings. The aircraft energy state is then compared with a desired stable approach energy state. A calculation is then made for required rates of airspeed and vertical speed adjustments, based on the airframe parameters, in order to correct the aircraft energy state to that of the desired state. That required adjustment rates to various parameters are then converted into a desired deceleration or acceleration indicator along the flight path direction as a first icon, e.g., the chevron 222 on the wing flight path marker 220. Flight crews can then adjust aircraft configurations, engine power setting, etc. such that the instantaneous acceleration white chevron 223 can be gradually overlapping with the desired acceleration chevron 222. A target airspeed 221 is indicated on the airspeed indicator 214, and optionally be also be displayed digitally as numbers 224. Furthermore, symbology 226 representing the runway 202 is displayed on the display 200, having a second icon, e.g., the circle 228, representing where the aircraft would touchdown on the runway 202 if the current energy state were maintained. A third icon, e.g., the circle 230, represents where the aircraft would touchdown if the desired stable approach energy state were maintained.
In accordance with the exemplary method of
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of any or all the claims. As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the invention, it being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
