Patent ID: 6334344
Filing Date: 2002-01-01
Classification: G05D,G08G,Y10T

Abstract:
A process for the real-time reconfiguring of a trajectory for an airborne vehicle, this trajectory being executable, in particular, by an automatic pilot device, this process being performed by a computer which, in real time, receives information supplied by equipments on board the airborne vehicle regarding the situation of the airborne vehicle with respect to its spatial and temporal environment, its range and its maneuverability, and stores data regarding the mission of the airborne vehicle which may possibly be updated in the course of the mission, including a nominal trajectory in five dimensions: three spatial dimensions, a time dimension and a dimension which represents the fuel-dependent range, this information constituting a real-time airborne vehicle-mission context, this computer being connected to an automatic pilot device and to a display which gives a depiction of the current trajectory and indicates the current position of the airborne vehicle with respect to this trajectory, said process comprising, with a view to adapting the mission to suit a new situation which has arisen as the result of a disrupting event:updating the data relating to the real-time airborne vehicle-mission context that has been altered by the occurrence of the disrupting event, and detecting, within the updated real-time airborne vehicle-mission context, the occurrence of one or more events that justify reconfiguring the nominal trajectory, and being characterized in that it involves, after the above stages:selecting, as soon as an event that justifies reconfiguring the nominal trajectory is detected, according to the updated real-time airborne vehicle-mission context, a trajectory-reconfiguring method from a collection of predefined trajectory-reconfiguring methods available in memory in the computer, each one, when implemented, allowing a single reconfigured trajectory to be obtained, each of these predefined trajectory-reconfiguring methods being tailored to a specific and predefined category of airborne vehicle-mission context, said selection of a predefined trajectory-reconfiguring method being made by likening the real-time airborne vehicle-mission context to the closest predefined category of airborne vehicle-mission context on the basis of selection criteria relating, in particular, to the values of the spatial, temporal and fuel-dependent range differences observed with respect to the nominal trajectory, the selected predefined trajectory-reconfiguring method directly translating the operational strategy customarily employed by aircrew placed in the chosen predefined category of airborne vehicle-mission context, executing the selected predefined reconfiguration method which, according to the mission data and the real-time context, determines a new trajectory that the automatic pilot system can execute, displaying the new trajectory on the display as an overlay on the current trajectory, and if the pilot of the airborne vehicle validates this new trajectory, transmitting information characterizing this new trajectory to the automatic pilot device.