Thales

Rockwell-collins France

Elias Bitar

Nicolas Marty

Christophe Caillaud

Stéphane Leriche

Gilles Francois

Michaël Oberti

Jean-François Neu-Faber

The management system plots the route to be flown in a flight plan, at least partially, by a chaining of published navigation procedures accessible from a NavDB navigation database and constituted of sequences of waypoints and/or turn points associated with specific flight constraints. It comprises a mirror memory storing the latest versions of the published navigation procedures, modified by the crew of the aircraft during the progress of the flight plan and means of substituting these latest versions stored in the mirror memory for the published versions of the navigation procedures during a change in the route predicted in the flight plan obtained by a new chaining of navigation procedures, some of which are taken from the preceding chaining. This makes it possible, during a change of navigation procedure, to take account of specific flight constraints already entered during the progress of the flight but not appearing in the published navigation procedures.

System for managing the terminal part of a flight plan

Systems and methods for detecting potential collisions by an aircraft are disclosed. A set of points may be detected by one or more sensors of the aircraft. The set of points may be transformed based on the speed of the aircraft relative to a speed threshold. A potential collision may be detected based on whether a transformed point is within a protective envelope relative to the aircraft.

Method and system for detecting potential collisions by an aircraft

The present invention relates to a method allowing a modification of the flight plan of an aircraft in a semi-automated manner. The invention presents the main advantage of affording the crew of an aircraft a method for aiding the rejoining of a flight plan requiring only a designation by an operator of the new active reference that he wishes to use for guiding the aircraft.

Manual selection of the active reference of a flight plan for the guidance of an aircraft

The present invention relates to a method for selective filtering of a flight plan according to the operational needs, and it is characterized in that elements specific to the structure of the flight plan are added by the flight management system according to the nature of the elements inserted by the operator onto the flight plan, in order to determine whether these elements should or should not be taken into account for their use in the computations relating to the flight plan. This operator may, on his MMI (man-machine interface) carry out visual filterings of certain characteristic points or portions of the flight plan. This method makes it possible to add elements to a flight plan without modifying its essence and above all the maneuvers that are associated therewith.

Method for selective filtering of an aircraft flight plan according to the operational needs

The present invention relates to the definition, in a flight plan, of the horizontal profile of an air route with vertical flight and speed profile prescribed on departure and/or on arrival, by a stringing together of check-points and/or turn points associated with local flight constraints and called 'D-Fix' because they are not listed in a published navigation database like those called 'Waypoints'. It consists in charting, on curvilinear distance maps, a direct curvilinear path joining the departure point to the destination point of the air route while complying with vertical flight and speed profiles prescribed on departure and/or on arrival and while guaranteeing a circumnavigation of the surrounding reliefs and compliance with regulated overfly zones, then in approximating the series of points of the direct curvilinear path by a sequence of straight segments complying with an arbitrary maximum deviation threshold relative to the points of the series and an arbitrary minimum lateral deviation threshold relative to the set of obstacles to be circumnavigated and in adopting as &#x201c;D-Fix&#x201d; points the points of the intermediate intersections of the rectilinear segments.

Method for determining the horizontal profile of a flight plan complying with a prescribed vertical flight profile

The parts of the flight plan of an aircraft corresponding to lateral trajectories at low altitude can comprise passages with limited lateral freedom of deployment because of risks of collision with the ground, or because of obstacles on the ground. The method makes it possible to signal them for the attention of the crew, so that said crew should redouble their attention. To do this it uses the display, on an onboard navigation screen, of a vertical profile of margin of maneuver relating to the navigation band widened to the right and to the left by lateral margins of maneuver, superimposed on the vertical navigation profile relating only to the navigation band.

Method of indicating the lateral manoeuvre margins on either side of the flight plan path of an aircraft

This method facilitates the joining, by an aircraft, of a secure zone, without constraint of deployment in the horizontal plane, in particular when the latter is threatened by a risk of collision with the ground or by a risk of penetration into a forbidden zone which cannot be resolved by a purely vertical avoidance maneuver. It consists in selecting a point for joining a zone of free lateral deployment by means of a criterion of minimum cost of the initial maneuver of turning at the start of the trajectory for joining the possible points of access to the zones of free lateral deployment.

Method for selecting aircraft access point into a lateral free evolution area

Navigation of an aircraft is facilitated through the displaying on a map of an over flown region, and of the limits of zones within range of the aircraft in an emergency situation. The points of the zones within range of the aircraft are tagged on the basis of: an estimate of the vertical margins to reach these points, taking into account non-maneuverability zones neighboring the aircraft to be circumvented; a vertical flight profile to be complied with; and a safety height margin.

Method of aiding navigation for aircraft in an emergency situation

This method allows the calculation, using a terrain elevation database, of a map of the distances of the points accessible to a mobile object subjected to dynamic constraints evolving with its time of travel, for example an aircraft having an imposed vertical flight profile, the distances being measured solely according to paths achievable by the mobile object. It implements a propagation-based distance transform which catalogs the achievable paths going from a goal point whose distance is to be estimated to a source point which is the origin of the distance measurements and likens the distance of the goal point to the length of the shortest achievable path or paths.

Distance-estimation method for a travelling object subjected to dynamic path constraints

The device relates to the signaling, to the pilot of a moving vehicle, for example an aircraft, of its lateral maneuvering margins taking into account obstacles placed in its maneuvering zone. This device determines, over the maneuvering zone of the moving vehicle, the contours of a first type of risk region that must be bypassed and those of two other types of risk region consisting of lateral margins surrounding the first type of risk region, of widths less than separation thresholds or their upper limit considered necessary for a lateral maneuver without space constraint and displays them for the pilot of the moving vehicle. The determination of the separation thresholds takes into account the bearing angle under which a point of the contour of a region of the first type is seen from the moving vehicle.

Device and method for signaling lateral maneuver margins

In distance maps used in order to facilitate the navigation of craft such as an aircraft, the distances estimated take into account obstacles to be circumvented but not the maneuverability of the craft. The adaptation route required by the craft in order to take the right direction is not taken into account so that certain distance estimates for accessible points located in the neighborhood of the craft are unrealistic. In order to make a distance map more realistic, it is proposed that an obstacle of concave shape associated with the craft be added behind the position of the craft, forcing the estimations of distances to be circumvented an area that is inaccessible to the craft for reasons of maneuverability.

Curvilinear distance estimation method for a moving vehicle with limited maneuverability

This lateral maneuverability map shows the area of movement of a vehicle with the contours of the regions of complete freedom of lateral movement. It is generated from a distance map listing the distances of the points of its regions that can be negotiated by the vehicle to the regions to be circumvented. It may show the area of movement of the vehicle in the form of a subdivision into at least three types of region, namely a first type corresponding to regions to be circumvented, a second type corresponding to bands surrounding the regions to be circumvented and having the width of a maneuvering space arbitrarily considered as necessary for free lateral movement of the vehicle, and a third type of region corresponding to regions of free lateral movement. In the case of an aircraft, said map may be superimposed on the map of a TAWS system in order to specify to the pilot if he has complete freedom of lateral movement or not.

Lateral maneuverability map for a vehicle and method of obtaining it

The device relates to the signaling, to the pilot of a craft, of the risks that it incurs due to obstacles placed in its zone of deployment. This device determines, on the zone of deployment of the craft, the contours of several types of risk region as well as the contours of two lateral regions of tight deployment tied to the craft and produces alarms as a function of the types of zones at risk found in the lateral regions of tight deployment.

Device for signaling risks, risk level map obtained by the device and method for formulating the map

This method uses for the estimation of a distance, a propagation distance transform considering only the paths which are both accessible to the aircraft taking account of its vertical flight profile and complying with air regulations. The propagated distance Dis accompanied by a propagated altitude Awhich at all points follows the vertical flight profile of the aircraft, while being greater than the altitudes of these points and complying with the air regulation constraints at these points. This is obtained by subjecting the propagation to compliance with the vertical flight profile of the aircraft, constraints of the elevations of the points of the relief and air regulation constraints.

Distance estimating method for aircraft taking air navigation restrictions into account

A method of locating difficult access points on a topological map includes: analyzing curvilinear distances using a chamfer mask to catalogue approximate values C(V) of the Euclidean distances separating a point Cof the map from its nearest neighbors V; determining therefrom, at each point Cof the map of curvilinear distances, the discrepancies |DT(V)&#x2212;DT()| of curvilinear distances separating the point considered Cfrom its nearest neighbors V; comparing these discrepancies with the approximate values C(V); determining the point as a difficult access point based upon a difference between the Euclidean distance and the determined discrepancies of curvilinear distances; and rendering a display of a map indicating difficult to access points.

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Toulouse, France

Elias Bitar