Patent Description:
The present disclosure generally relates to aircraft trajectory prediction, and more particularly relates to predicting a location of an aircraft along a potential trajectory with position offsets to account for wind effects.

<CIT>discloses the standard method to counteract cross-wind: anticipating the wind at each point of the trajectory and calculating based on the anticipated cross-wind a counteracting heading for each point.

Determining the forces acting on an aircraft during flight utilizes complex equations that require computationally intense trigonometric functions to calculate longitudinal and lateral forces from wind through which the aircraft is flying. Such complex equations would require very large computational capacity onboard an aircraft to predict potential aircraft performance and position for high resolution and/or multiple trajectory aircraft modeling.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems, and aircraft that provide accurate position information that accounts for wind while reducing the computational burden of the trigonometric functions. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure 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.

Systems, aircraft, and non-transitory media are provided. In a first non-limiting example, an avionics system for an aircraft includes a storage device and one or more data processors. The storage device stores instructions for monitoring an actual performance of the aircraft. The one or more data processors are configured to execute the instructions to: generate a lateral component and a longitudinal component of a measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft; generate a plurality of wind independent positions of the aircraft along a potential aircraft trajectory based on a prediction model; and generate a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft based on the plurality of wind independent positions, on the lateral component, and on the longitudinal component.

In a second non-limiting example, an aircraft includes a sensor system and an avionics system. The sensor system is configured to measure a magnitude and direction of a moving air mass. The avionics system includes a storage device for storing instructions and one or more data processors configured to execute the instructions to: measure the magnitude and direction of the moving air mass based on an output from the sensor system; generate a lateral component and a longitudinal component of a measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft; generate a plurality of wind independent positions of the aircraft along a potential aircraft trajectory based on a prediction model; and generate a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft based on the plurality of wind independent positions, on the lateral component, and on the longitudinal component.

In a third non-limiting embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium has instructions that when executed cause one or more data processors to: generate a lateral component and a longitudinal component of a measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft; generate a plurality of wind independent positions of the aircraft along a potential aircraft trajectory based on a prediction model; and generate a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft based on the plurality of wind independent positions, on the lateral component, and on the longitudinal component.

Advantages of the present disclosure will be readily appreciated, as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:.

As used herein, the term module refers to any hardware, software, firmware, electronic control component, processing logic, and/or processor device, individually or in any combination, including without limitation: application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.

It is further noted that the systems and methods may be implemented on various types of data processor environments (e.g., on one or more data processors) which execute instructions (e.g., software instructions) to perform operations disclosed herein. Non-limiting examples include implementation on a single general purpose computer or workstation, or on a networked system, or in a client-server configuration, or in an application service provider configuration. For example, the methods and systems described herein may be implemented on many different types of processing devices by program code comprising program instructions that are executable by the device processing subsystem. The software program instructions may include source code, object code, machine code, or any other stored data that is operable to cause a processing system to perform the methods and operations described herein. Other implementations may also be used, however, such as firmware or even appropriately designed hardware configured to carry out the methods and systems described herein. For example, a computer can be programmed with instructions to perform the various steps of the flowcharts described herein.

The systems' and methods' data (e.g., associations, mappings, data input, data output, intermediate data results, final data results, etc.) may be stored and implemented in one or more different types of computer-implemented data stores, such as different types of storage devices and programming constructs (e.g., memory, RAM, ROM, Flash memory, flat files, databases, programming data structures, programming variables, IF-THEN (or similar type) statement constructs, etc.). It is noted that data structures describe formats for use in organizing and storing data in databases, programs, memory, or other computer-readable media for use by a computer program.

The systems and methods may be provided on many different types of computer-readable storage media including computer storage mechanisms (e.g., non-transitory media, such as CD-ROM, diskette, RAM, flash memory, computer's hard drive, etc.) that contain instructions (e.g., software) for use in execution by a processor to perform the methods' operations and implement the systems described herein.

The computer components, software modules, functions, data stores and data structures described herein may be connected directly or indirectly to each other in order to allow the flow of data needed for their operations. It is also noted that a module or processor includes but is not limited to a unit of code that performs a software operation, and can be implemented for example as a subroutine unit of code, or as a software function unit of code, or as an object (as in an object-oriented paradigm), or as an applet, or in a computer script language, or as another type of computer code. The software components and/or functionality may be located on a single computer or distributed across multiple computers depending upon the situation at hand.

Various embodiments disclosed herein describe methods and systems for adjusting a potential aircraft trajectory for wind effects. In some examples, the trajectory model uses the potential trajectory systems described in <CIT>, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Referring now to <FIG>, an example of an aircraft <NUM> is illustrated in accordance with some embodiments. Aircraft <NUM> includes a control system <NUM>, a sensor system <NUM>, and an actuator system <NUM>, among other systems. Although aircraft <NUM> is described in this description as an airplane, it should be appreciated that control system <NUM> may be utilized in other aircraft, land vehicles, water vehicles, space vehicles, or other machinery without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. For example, control system <NUM> may be utilized in submarines, helicopters, airships, spacecraft, or automobiles.

Aircraft <NUM> is acted on by moving air <NUM> (i.e., wind). Moving air <NUM> has a lateral component <NUM> and a longitudinal component <NUM>. Lateral component <NUM> acts perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of aircraft <NUM> and longitudinal component <NUM> acts parallel to the longitudinal axis.

Control system <NUM> is an avionics system configured to operate aircraft <NUM> and to perform the methods described below to predict a wind independent potential flight path <NUM> and a wind adjusted potential flight path. Wind independent potential flight path <NUM> is adjusted by offsets <NUM> for wind position at iteration intervals of the trajectory modeling algorithm, as will be further discussed blow.

Control system <NUM> includes at least one processor <NUM> and a non-transitory computer readable storage device or medium <NUM>. Non-transitory computer readable storage device or medium <NUM> is storage device for storing instructions for performing the method described below. At least one processor <NUM> is one or more data processors configured to execute the instructions to perform the method described below. The processor may be any custom made or commercially available processor, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), an auxiliary processor among several processors associated with control system <NUM>, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chip set), a macroprocessor, any combination thereof, or generally any device for executing instructions. The computer readable storage device or medium may include volatile and nonvolatile storage in read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), and keep-alive memory (KAM), for example. The computer-readable storage device or medium may be implemented using any of a number of known memory devices such as PROMs (programmable read-only memory), EPROMs (electrically PROM), EEPROMs (electrically erasable PROM), flash memory, or any other electric, magnetic, optical, or combination memory devices capable of storing data, some of which represent executable instructions, used by control system <NUM> in controlling aircraft <NUM>.

The instructions may include one or more separate programs, each of which comprises an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. The instructions, when executed by the processor, receive and process signals from the sensor system, perform logic, calculations, methods and/or algorithms for automatically controlling the components of aircraft <NUM>, and generate control signals for actuator system <NUM> to automatically control the components of aircraft <NUM> based on the logic, calculations, methods, and/or algorithms. Although only one control system <NUM> is shown in <FIG>, embodiments of aircraft <NUM> may include any number of control systems <NUM> that communicate over any suitable communication medium or a combination of communication media and that cooperate to process the sensor signals, perform logic, calculations, methods, and/or algorithms, and generate control signals to automatically control features of aircraft <NUM>. In various embodiments, one or more instructions of control system, when executed by the processor, performs the methods described below.

Sensor system <NUM> includes one or more sensing devices that sense observable conditions of the exterior environment, the interior environment of aircraft <NUM>, or operational conditions and status of aircraft <NUM>. For example, sensor system <NUM> may include accelerometers, gyroscopes, RADARs, LIDARs, global positioning systems, optical cameras, thermal cameras, ultrasonic sensors, and/or other sensors. In the example provided, sensor system <NUM> includes a pitot static system with a pitot tube <NUM> and a static port <NUM>. Signals from sensor system <NUM> may be used to determine a wind speed and direction of moving air <NUM>, as will be appreciated by those with ordinary skill in the art.

Actuator system <NUM> includes one or more actuator devices that control one or more vehicle features. For example, actuator system <NUM> may include actuators that manipulate control surfaces on aircraft <NUM>, extend or retract landing gear of aircraft <NUM>, an/or move other components of aircraft <NUM>.

Referring now to <FIG>, and with continued reference to <FIG>, a method <NUM> for adjusting predicted trajectories for wind effects is illustrated in flow diagram form. In the example provided, control system <NUM> performs the tasks of method <NUM>. For example, control system <NUM> may store instructions on storage device <NUM> for processor <NUM> to execute to perform the tasks of method <NUM>. In some examples, method <NUM> adjust for wind effects in a hazard awareness system. For example, control system <NUM> may determine whether a potential aircraft trajectory complies with a flight envelope and avoids terrain based on the wind adjusted positions determined by control system <NUM>.

Task <NUM> measures a movement of an air mass through which an aircraft is flying. For example, control system <NUM> may measure a speed and direction of moving air mass <NUM> using sensor system <NUM>.

Task <NUM> generates a lateral component and a longitudinal component of the measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft. For example, control system <NUM> may use trigonometric functions to break moving air mass <NUM> into longitudinal component <NUM> and lateral component <NUM>. In the example provided, longitudinal component <NUM> and lateral component <NUM> are taken with respect to axes of aircraft <NUM>. In some examples, the lateral and longitudinal components may be taken with respect to a flight path of aircraft <NUM>, with respect to the ground, or with respect to other features without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Task <NUM> generates a lateral position offset based on the lateral component and a longitudinal position offset based on the longitudinal component and a time interval of calculations used for the prediction model. In the example provided, control system <NUM> generates the lateral position offset according to:<MAT>.

<NUM>, Dt is the time interval, WindKnots is a speed of the moving air mass in knots, and WindHeading is a direction of the moving air mass in degrees (as opposed to the bearing source of the wind). It should be appreciated that other units (e.g., knots, mph, kph, degrees, radians) and sign conventions may be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Control system <NUM> generates the longitudinal position offset according to:
<MAT>.

Task <NUM> generates a plurality of wind independent positions of the aircraft along a potential aircraft trajectory based on a prediction model. For example, control system <NUM> may execute the trajectory prediction model similar to the prediction model described in <CIT> without wind effect calculations at each interval to generate the plurality of wind independent positions. In the example provided, wind independent potential flight path <NUM> illustrates a path between wind independent positions.

Task <NUM> generates a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft based on the plurality of wind independent positions, on the lateral component, and on the longitudinal component. In the example provided, control system <NUM> adds the lateral position offset and the longitudinal position offset to each of the plurality of wind independent positions to achieve offset <NUM>. For example, wind independent potential flight path <NUM> adjusts and calculates the next time interval at the adjusted position corresponding to wind adjusted path <NUM>.

Task <NUM> advances the time interval of the prediction model. Accordingly, control system <NUM> may generate a corresponding wind corrected position of the plurality of wind corrected positions at each time interval used in the prediction model.

Task <NUM> determines whether the prediction is complete. When the prediction is not complete, method <NUM> returns to task <NUM> to continue predicting the trajectory of aircraft <NUM> using the previously determined lateral position offset and longitudinal position offset. For example, control system <NUM> may generate a next consecutive position of the plurality of wind independent positions based on a current wind corrected position of the plurality of wind corrected positions at each time interval.

When the trajectory prediction is complete for all desirable trajectories, method <NUM> ends.

Claim 1:
An avionics system for an aircraft, the avionics system comprising:
a storage device for storing instructions for monitoring an actual performance of the aircraft; and
one or more data processors configured to execute the instructions to:
generate a lateral position offset based on a lateral component of a measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft;
generate a longitudinal position offset based on a longitudinal component of the measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft; and
generate a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft by repeatedly generating wind independent positions along a potential aircraft trajectory using a prediction model and repeatedly using the lateral position offset and the longitudinal position offset to offset the wind independent positions along the potential aircraft trajectory.