Patent ID: 8843303

Claim:
A method for risk-aware contingency flight re-planning, comprising: receiving a preplanned route, said preplanned route planned for a 3-D routing of a vehicle, said preplanned route activated within said vehicle prior to a departure of said vehicle; receiving a risk tolerance level from a decision maker; receiving input from a threat database, a terrain database, an obstacle database, a threat lethality database, a fuel evaluator, a terrain masking evaluator, a time evaluator, and a vehicle performance database; receiving an indication of an en route risk to said vehicle, said en route risk having a risk type; determining a plurality of 4-D paths for said vehicle to traverse, each 4-D path comprised of a plurality of 4-D states, each 4-D state selected for said 4-D path based on said risk tolerance level and said received input; associating at least one of: a path cost, a time cost, a threat level, an arc cost, and an extra traversal cost with each of said plurality of 4-D paths; ranking said plurality of 4-D paths, said ranking based on said risk tolerance level, said risk type, and said associating; displaying a portion of said plurality of 4-D paths to said decision maker, said portion determined by said ranking; receiving a path selection from said decision maker, said path selection designating and activating a selected 4-D path from said portion; and displaying said activated 4-D path to an operator of said vehicle.