Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Arinc, Inc.

Jacob G Teague

Venkata A Sishtla

James B West

Jiwon L Moran

Christopher Crain

Mark C Fersdahl

Mark B Godfrey

Divesh Lakhi

Yoel Sonera

Derek G White

Alexander M Oransky

Alexander C Brokman

Krishnamoorthy Duraisamy

Balraj Gangadhar

James P Meinecke

Umanath Govindaraju

Eric A Casto

Richard Elliott

Krystina Rodriguez

Sathiyaseelan Thulasidass

A ground station is used by an air traffic controller to provide support to an aircraft. In particular, the ground station may mirror or regenerate a weather radar overlay of a flight display of the aircraft. The air traffic controller and the flight crew may then both see the same real-time weather information with minimum delay and achieve a similar level of situation awareness. The weather radar overlay may be displayed on a display of the ground station. The ground station may receive weather data and ADS-B data or other forms of location data and intended flight path from the aircraft via an air-to-ground communication channel. The weather data may be used to regenerate the weather radar overlay. The ground station may also use the ADS-B data to generate a coverage map of the aircraft in a selected airspace.

Method to regenerate on board weather radar display at the ground

An AESA may include a point-to-point serial interface between RFIC that implements positional addressing and is extensible to an unlimited amount of RFIC. A controller of the AESA may access registers of one or more RFIC and sends control and synchronization signals using a low-latency serial interface. The AESA may include primary and secondary interfaces which form a mesh network allowing communications around defective devices or interconnects and reduced area overhead resulting in array size reduction. The AESA may include health monitoring to determine location of data network faults providing improved array mean-time between failure (MTBF) and fault recovery. The AESA may allow faster antenna array configuration and beam steering rates for improved uptime and optimized scan modes. The AESA may experience improvements in manufacturability and reliability due to redundancy and fault isolation. The AESA may include more RFIC per serial interface allows scaling into larger arrays.

High speed, extensible and self-healing data network for AESA RFIC arrays

A weather depiction system for an aircraft is disclosed. A radar is configured to scan a surrounding environment of the aircraft and provide weather data. An aircraft computing device is configured to: detect weather patterns using the weather data, receive a flight trajectory of the aircraft from a flight management system (FMS), compare the flight trajectory to an altitude of each of the weather patterns, identify the weather pattern as relevant or non-relevant based on the comparison, and present symbols corresponding to the relevant weather patterns on the weather display and exclude symbols corresponding to the non-relevant weather patterns on the weather display.

Optimized weather and threat depiction based on aircraft flight plan

A radar system including an AESA illuminates a target with a first pulse for a desired beam pointing angle (azimuth and elevation). The AESA then illuminates the target with a second pulse for the desired pointing angle, the second pulse defining a radiation pattern with a main beam in phase with the first pulse, but side lobes that are out of phase. The radar system receives return signals and combines the return signals to null the side lobes by the principle of superposition. The radar processing unit is time synced such that the pulse-pair is interpreted as a single ultra-low level side lobe return radiation pattern.

AESA TX pulse pair radiation pattern phase conjugation for low side lobe/maximum EIRP radiation pattern

A weather radar system initiates a horizontal scan at a first tilt angle, then adjusts the tilt angle down during an intermediate phase of the horizontal scan, and finally adjust the tilt angle back to the first tilt angle for an end phase of the horizontal scan. The intermediate phase may comprise a fifteen-to-twenty-degree arc centered about a centerline of the weather radar antenna. The radar system may perform test horizontal scans at intervals within a predefined range, each having a different fixed tilt angle to identify tilt angles having desirable signal-to-noise ratio and signal-to-clutter ratio at different phases of the scan. Alternatively, the system may execute a vertical scan and at one or more horizontal positions to identify desirable tilt angles at various phases.

Optimized antenna scan strategy for windshear detection

A system and method for rendering near range weather information in a first aspect and mid-to-long range weather information in a second aspect includes transforming the mid-to-long range weather information to preserve certain relationships between the near range rendering and the mid-to-long range rendering while compressing distances to fit both renderings on a single display. Criticality metrics are maintained for the compressed mid-to-long range rendering by identifying the most critical weather indicator and applying it to the compressed weather cell rendering.

Mixed aspect graphic for neighboring fields of view

A system may include a display and a processor installed in an aircraft. The processor may be configured to: obtain air traffic data; generate a display image based at least on the air traffic data; and output the display image. The display may display the display image to a user. The display image may convey a range dimension and a horizontal dimension. The display image may depict at least one air traffic indicator. Each of the at least one air traffic indicator may be positioned respective to a corresponding range and horizontal location relative to the aircraft. Each of the at least one air traffic indicator may indicate at least one of: an amount of a vertical distance of air traffic above the aircraft, an amount of a vertical distance of air traffic below the aircraft, or that air traffic has an approximately equal altitude as the aircraft.

Aircraft system and method to display air traffic indicators

A radar system and method for sharing threat data is configured to communicate with other radar systems in surrounding aircraft and share threat specific data. Each radar system may be configured to a specific task according to the priorities of the aircraft and the capabilities of the surrounding aircraft; the gathered data is then shared with the surrounding aircraft such that each aircraft may commit longer dwell time to individual tasks while still receiving data for all of the potential tasks. The radar system may identify a fault and send a request for radar threat data to nearby aircraft. The radar system may receive such data within the operating band of the radar and allow continued operation.

Airborne sensor to sensor information sharing technique

A radar system receives threat relevant data with pulses sufficiently separated to provide sufficient long-range imaging, analyzes the return data to identify features of the threat, and generate a second set of pulses to acquire more detailed, higher granularity data specific to the threat. The system may include an ESA that is configured for pulses in a higher frequency to acquire higher resolution data specific to the threat.

Adaptive cell depth contour beams

A system and method for a multi-panel multi-function active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar operation receives radar commands from individual aircraft systems and segments a plurality of AESA panels fixed (at variable azimuth/elevation about the aircraft) into a plurality of subarrays to carry out each individual function commanded by the individual aircraft system. Dependent on aircraft status and phase of flight, the and individual AESA are designated for use and the subarrays are sized based on desired radar function at the specific phase of flight and specific threat associated with the phase. The system dynamically shifts the designated AESA, subarray size, beam characteristics, power settings, and function to enable multiple simultaneous function of the suite of AESA panels.

Multi-panel multi-function AESA system

A system and method for a multi-beam multi-function active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar operation receives radar commands from individual aircraft systems and segments a single AESA fixed panel into a plurality of subarrays to carry out each individual function commanded by the individual aircraft system. Dependent on aircraft status and phase of flight, the subarrays are sized based on desired radar function at the specific phase of flight and specific threat associated with the phase. The system dynamically shifts the subarray size, beam characteristics, power settings, and function to enable multiple function of a cost effective single AESA panel.

Multi-beam multi-function AESA system

A system for rendering local aircraft traffic by defining boundaries of risk receives current aircraft locations for a plurality of aircraft, including altitudes, and determines multiple boundaries of risk for each aircraft. The multiple boundaries of risk are then consolidated according to risk level where such boundaries of multiple aircraft overlap or nearly overlap. Areas of risk are outlined according to common risk levels of multiple aircraft and the original diamond icons are unrendered. Ranges to the nearest aircraft in each direction are identified, and indicators of such direction and range to the nearest aircraft are rendered around the aircraft.

High traffic zone display

A system and method for cooperative aerial vehicle collision avoidance provides an ESA-based sensor network capable of high-resolution threat proximity measurements and cooperative and non-cooperative collision avoidance in the full spherical volume surrounding an aerial vehicle. The system incorporates a plurality of ESA panels onto the airframe where the conical scan volumes overlap leaving no gaps in spherical proximity coverage. The resulting received data is stitched together between the neighboring ESA panels and used to determine a position and vector for each threat aerial vehicle within range. The data is transmitted through a cooperative collision avoidance network to nearby aerial vehicles, and presented to the autopilot and flight crew to increase situational awareness. The system determines a maneuver for the aerial vehicle and a maneuver for the threat aerial vehicle based on relative maneuvering capabilities to maintain desired separation.

ESA collision avoidance system and method

A system and method for ESA quadrant mechanical reconfiguration functions to shift some of the complexity from algorithmic manipulation of received radar data to mechanical transformation of a simple panel structure to achieve desired performance in a desired ESA boresight. The system receives a rotation trigger based on an external event such as altitude and mission and causes two or more simple ESA panels to rotate from a first azimuthal position to a second common azimuthal position without stopping at an intermediate azimuth. Once positioned, each individual rotational ESA panel is combined to function as a single aggregate ESA enabling desired performance in field of view, resolution, and range along a common boresight.

ESA quadrant mechanical reconfiguration

A system may include at least one display and at least one processor installed in an aircraft. The at least one processor may be communicatively coupled to the at least one display. The at least one processor may be configured to: obtain aircraft data associated with the aircraft; obtain an azimuth value associated with an azimuth; obtain radar data associated with at least one threat; generate a three-dimensional threat image based at least on the aircraft data, the azimuth value, and the radar data; and output the three-dimensional threat image as graphical data. The at least one display may be configured to display the three-dimensional threat image to a user. The three-dimensional threat image may depict a three-dimensional relationship between the aircraft and the at least one threat. The three-dimensional threat image may convey a range dimension, a lateral dimension extended perpendicularly from the azimuth, and a height dimension.

Growing community of inventors

West Melbourne, FL, United States of America

Jacob G Teague