Patent Application
20100148990
The present invention relates to a vehicle display system and method and, more particularly, to a system and method for selectively displaying terminal procedure data.
Aircraft egress from, and aircraft ingress to, airports is conducted in accordance with predetermined terminal procedures. As is generally known, the terminal procedures for each airport generally include one or more arrival procedures and one or more departure procedures. Arrival procedures are used to move an aircraft from its en route airspace to a terminal airspace for landing. Departure procedures are used to move an aircraft from a terminal airspace to en route airspace. Arrival procedures and departure procedures are typically characterized by one or more terminal procedure parameters. For example, a departure procedure may be characterized by a departure runway and a departure transition. Further, an arrival procedure may be characterized an arrival transition. Each terminal procedure also includes various types of information such as communication frequencies, course headings, navigational aids, and minimum altitudes.
The terminal procedures are published as charts, using textual, graphical, and iconic formats, by governments and, in some instances, by various companies. For example, in the United States (U.S.), Jeppesen publishes terminal procedures. The terminal procedures are typically published as printed paper books. The terminal procedures covering airports in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Pacific Territories, are published by the U.S. government as a 26 volume set of printed books known as the U.S. Terminal Procedures Publication (TPP). The TPP provides various types of arrival and departure procedures for each airport in this coverage area, including Departure Procedure (DP) charts and Standard Terminal Arrival (STAR) charts.
These published DP charts and STAR charts, or portions thereof, are provided onboard each aircraft for use by the flight crews. Alternatively, electronic versions of the DP charts or STAR charts may be displayed on an electronic display device. Established rules and regulations mandate that the terminal procedures are in view of the aircraft flight crew when conducting an arrival procedure or departure procedure. Thus, before conducting one of these procedures the flight crew retrieves the appropriate terminal procedure chart (e.g., the electronic and/or paper version) to extract the appropriate terminal procedure data.
However, each DP chart or STAR chart may include terminal procedure data describing a plurality of terminal procedures. For example, a DP chart may include terminal procedure data describing departure procedures that correspond to multiple departure runways and transitions. Further, a STAR chart may include terminal procedure data describing arrival procedures that correspond to multiple arrival transitions. Thus, in order to extract information relevant to a desired terminal procedure the flight crew is required to analyze the entire terminal procedure publication chart. This process requires the flight crew to review information that is not relevant to the desired terminal procedure and results in an unnecessary increase in the workload of the aircraft flight crew.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for selectively displaying terminal procedure data corresponding to a desired departure procedure or arrival procedure. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.
In one embodiment a flight deck display system is provided for selectively displaying terminal procedure data. The flight deck display system comprises at least one display device, a terminal procedure data source, and a processor coupled to the at least one display device and the terminal procedure data source. The processor is configured to selectively retrieve the terminal procedure data from the terminal procedure data source based on at least one terminal procedure parameter and display the retrieved terminal procedure data on the at least one display device.
The present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and in which:
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. 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. In this regard, the present invention may be described in terms of functional block diagrams and various processing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocks may be realized in many different forms of hardware, firmware, and/or software components configured to perform the various functions. For example, the present invention may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. Such general techniques are known to those skilled in the art and are not described in detail herein. Furthermore, the various methods presented in the drawing Figures or the specification are not to be construed as limiting the order in which the individual processing steps may be performed. It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and described herein are illustrative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of the invention in any way.
DP chart 200 includes textual and graphical information for the Wagge Two Departure, including communication data (e.g., communication frequencies), lateral fix data (e.g., headings, indents, radials, etc.), vertical fix data (altitudes, angles), missed approach data, various minimum data (e.g., minimum airspeeds, minimum altitudes, etc.), and aircraft performance data (e.g., climb gradients, landing distances, etc.). In addition, DP chart 200 includes textual departure procedure descriptions and departure procedure notes. The departure procedure descriptions 220, 221, 222, 223, and 224 each provide a narrative describing one or more steps for a departure procedure. The departure procedure notes 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, and 237 describe hazards, minimum altitudes, alerts, and provide other relevant information that does not appear in the “Departure Route Description” section of DP chart 200.
Certain of the departure procedure descriptions 220-224 and departure procedure notes 230-237 for DP chart 200 correspond to specific terminal procedure parameters for the Wagge Two Departure. For example, departure procedure notes 231 and 236, and departure procedure description 220 each correspond to Runway 16L. Further, departure procedure description 223 corresponds to the Livelock Transition. Alternatively, certain of the departure procedure descriptions 220-224 and departure procedure notes 230-237 include general information that is relevant to all of the departure procedures for the Wagge Two Departure. Departure procedure notes 230, 233, and 234, and departure procedure description 222, each include such general information.
Thus, to extract information regarding a specific departure procedure or SID the flight crew must analyze DP chart 200 to extract only the information that is relevant to the appropriate departure procedure parameters. As described above, this requires the flight crew to analyze all of the information on DP Chart 200, even the entries that do not correspond to the appropriate runway and transition, increasing the workload for the flight crew. Embodiments described below provide a Departure Procedure (DP) database that associates departure procedure descriptions and notes with their corresponding airport departure and terminal parameters. As further described below, the DP database enables the flight crew to selectively retrieve the departure procedure descriptions and notes that correspond to the parameters for a desired departure procedure.
With reference to
STAR chart 300 includes information that is similar to that described above with respect to DP chart 200 (
As with the departure procedure descriptions and notes for DP chart 200 (
With reference to
Turning now to
Returning now to a description of the system 400, the user interface 402 is in operable communication with the processor 404 and is configured to receive input from a user 430 (e.g., a pilot or co-pilot) and, in response to the user input, supply command signals to the processor 404. The user interface 402 may be any one, or combination, of various known user interface devices including, but not limited to, a cursor control device (CCD) 432, such as a mouse, a trackball, or joystick, and/or a keyboard, one or more buttons, switches, or knobs. In the depicted embodiment, the user interface 402 includes a CCD 432 and a keyboard 434. The pilot 430 uses the CCD 432 to, among other things, move a cursor symbol on a display screen, and may use the keyboard 434 to, among other things, input textual data.
The processor 404 is in operable communication with the terrain databases 406, the navigation databases 408, the radios 418, 422, the terminal procedure data source 424, and the display devices 426, 428, and is coupled to receive various types of inertial data from the various sensors 416, and various other avionics-related data from one or more other external systems, which are briefly described further below. The processor 404 is configured, in response to the inertial data, to selectively retrieve terrain data from one or more of the terrain databases 406 and navigation data from one or more of the navigation databases 408, and to supply appropriate display commands to one or both the display devices 426, 428, so that the retrieved terrain and navigation data are appropriately displayed on one or both of the display devices 426, 428. As
The processor 404 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 404 includes on-board RAM (random access memory) 440, and on-board ROM (read only memory) 442. The program instructions that control the processor 404 may be stored in either or both the RAM 440 and the ROM 442. For example, the operating system software may be stored in the ROM 442, whereas various operating mode software routines and various operational parameters may be stored in the RAM 440. 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 404 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.
The terrain databases 406 include various types of data representative of the terrain over which the aircraft may fly, and the navigation databases 408 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 406 and the navigation databases 408 are, for clarity and convenience, shown as being stored separately from the processor 404, all or portions of either or both of these databases 406, 408 could be loaded into the on-board RAM 440, or integrally formed as part of the processor 404, and/or RAM 440, and/or ROM 442. The terrain databases 406 and navigation databases 408 could also be part of a device or system that is physically separate from the display system 400.
The avionics data that are supplied from the sensors 416 include data representative of the state of the aircraft such as, for example, aircraft speed, altitude, and heading. The weather data 410 supplied to the processor 404 is representative of at least the location and type of various weather cells. The data supplied from the TCAS 414 includes data representative of other aircraft in the vicinity, which may include, for example, speed, direction, altitude, and altitude trend. In a preferred embodiment, the processor 404, in response to the TCAS data, supplies appropriate display commands to one or both of the display devices 426, 428 such that a graphic representation of each aircraft in the vicinity is displayed thereon. The TAWS 412 supplies data representative of the location of terrain that may be a threat to the aircraft. The processor 404, in response to the TAWS data, preferably supplies appropriate display commands to the display devices 426 and 428 such that the potential threat terrain is displayed in various colors depending on the level of threat.
The terminal procedure data source 424 provides various forms of terminal procedure data to processor 404. For example, the terminal procedure data source 424 may provide electronic versions of procedure publication charts (e.g., DP charts and STAR charts). In addition, the terminal procedure data source 424 includes a DP database 450 and a STAR database 452. As described above, the DP database 450 associates departure procedure data (e.g., departure procedure descriptions and notes) with a corresponding airport departure and one or more terminal procedure parameters (e.g., a departure runway and departure transition). As further described below, DP database 450 enables processor 404 to selectively retrieve and display departure procedure data that is relevant to a selected airport departure, departure runway, and departure transition. Further, STAR database 452 associates arrival procedure data (e.g., arrival procedure descriptions and notes) with a corresponding arrival airport and one or more terminal procedure parameters (e.g., an arrival transition). The STAR database 452 enables processor 404 to selectively retrieve and display arrival procedure data that corresponds to a selected airport arrival and airport transition.
As was previously mentioned, one or more other external systems (or subsystems) may also provide avionics-related data to the processor 404 for display on the display devices 426, 428. In the depicted embodiment, these external systems include a flight director 460, an instrument landing system (ILS) 463, a runway awareness and advisory system (RAAS) 464, and a navigation computer 466. The flight director 460, as is generally known, supplies command data representative of commands for piloting the aircraft in response to flight crew entered data, or various inertial and avionics data received from external systems. The command data supplied by the flight director 460 may be supplied to the processor 404 and displayed on one or both of the display devices 426, 428 for use by the pilot 430, or the data may be supplied to an autopilot (not illustrated).
The ILS 462 is a radio navigation system that provides aircraft with horizontal and vertical guidance just before and during landing and, at certain fixed points, indicates the distance to the reference point of landing. The system includes ground-based transmitters (not illustrated) that transmit radio frequency signals. The ILS 463 on board the aircraft receives these signals and supplies appropriate data to the processor for display on one or both of the display devices 426, 428.
The RAAS 464 provides improved situational awareness to help lower the probability of runway incursions by providing timely aural advisories to the flight crew during taxi, takeoff, final approach, landing and rollout. The RAAS 464 uses GPS data to determine aircraft position and compares aircraft position to airport location data stored in the navigation database 408. Based on these comparisons, the RAAS 464, if necessary, issues appropriate aural advisories informing the pilot, among other things of when the aircraft is approaching a runway—either on the ground or from the air—when the aircraft has entered and is aligned with a runway, and when the runway is not long enough for the particular aircraft.
The navigation computer 466 is used, among other things, to allow the pilot 430 to program a flight plan from one destination to another. The processor 404 may receive the programmed flight plan data from the navigation computer 466 and cause the programmed flight plan, or at least portions thereof, to be displayed on one or both of the display devices 426, 428.
The display devices 426, 428 are each used to display various images and data, in a graphic, iconic, and a textual format, and to supply visual feedback to the pilot 430 in response to input commands supplied by the pilot 430 to the user interface 402. It will be appreciated that the display devices 426, 428 may each be implemented using any one of numerous known displays suitable for rendering image and/or text data in a format viewable by the pilot 430. Non-limiting examples of such displays 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 may additionally be based on a panel mounted display, a HUD projection, or any known technology. To provide a more complete description of the method that is implemented by the flight deck display system 400, a general description of each of the display devices 426, 428 and the information each displays will now be provided below.
One of the display devices 426 is preferably implemented as a primary flight display (PFD), and the other display device 428 is preferably implemented as a multi-function display (MFD). The PFD 426 is used to display various types of flight information in a display area. As depicted in simplified format in
The MFD 428 is used to display information that allows an aircraft flight crew to perform flight planning and/or aircraft system management, both before and during flight. In a particular preferred embodiment, the MFD 428 includes a display area in which multiple graphical, iconic, and/or textual images may be simultaneously displayed, preferably in different sections. For example, and as depicted in
The horizontal situation display 484 provides a two-dimensional horizontal situation view of the aircraft along the current flight path, and the vertical situation display 486 provides either a two-dimensional profile vertical situation view or a perspective vertical situation view of the aircraft along the current flight path and/or ahead of the aircraft. While not depicted in
In addition to the data, icons, and/or images delineated above, and as was previously mentioned, both the PFD 426 and the MFD 428 are also used to selectively display terminal procedure data for a corresponding terminal procedure. The terminal procedure data may include electronic versions of terminal procedure publication charts (e.g., DP charts and STAR charts) as well as departure procedure data and arrival procedure data extracted from the DP database 450 and STAR database 452, respectively. To further illustrate the selective display of terminal procedure data, a departure procedure and an arrival procedure are described below, beginning with the departure procedure.
Prior to an aircraft leaving a gate or tarmac, the flight crew identifies a desired departure procedure by selecting departure procedure parameters (e.g., a departure runway and departure transition) for the appropriate airport departure. This selection may take any one of numerous forms, and may be accomplished either graphically or textually. In a particular preferred embodiment, however, a selectable menu is displayed.
Returning to
In one embodiment, processor 404 (
The iconic data display area 514, displays one or more iconic representations of the departure procedure descriptions displayed in the text display area 512. Each icon 516, 517, 518, 519, 520 comprises symbols and text that describe one or more steps outlined by the departure procedure descriptions, displayed in the text display area 512. For example, if the departure procedure description instructs the flight crew to proceed at a certain course or heading, the corresponding icon may comprise an arrow describing the corresponding movement of the aircraft and the heading or course name. Further, if the departure procedure description identifies a specific marker or location (e.g., such as a VORTAC) the corresponding icon may comprise a symbol and name for the marker or location. A member of the flight crew may read the departure procedure descriptions prior to performing a departure procedure and then refer back to the iconic data display area 514 periodically to remind themselves of the appropriate steps for performing the desired departure procedure. In addition, a selectable scroll icon 521 is also depicted. When scroll icon 521 is selected (e.g., by the pilot 430 utilizing a cursor and CCD 432 of
As an aircraft approaches the top-of-descent (TOD) of the en route airspace, the flight crew prepares for landing at the destination. This preparation includes selection of an appropriate terminal procedure parameter (e.g., an arrival transition) for the desired arrival airport. This selection may take any one of numerous forms, and may be accomplished either graphically or textually. In a particular preferred embodiment, however, a selectable menu is displayed. For example, a selectable menu substantially similar to the selectable menu described above with regard to
Returning to
For example, the arrival procedure data may be displayed in the user display window 510 of
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 the exemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims and the legal equivalents thereof.
