902results about "Multiple aircraft traffic management" patented technology

Systems and methods for UAV safety are provided. An authentication system may be used to confirm UAV and/or user identity and provide secured communications between users and UAVs. The UAVs may operate in accordance with a set of flight regulations. The set of flight regulations may be associated with a geo-fencing device in the vicinity of the UAV.

The present invention provides a traffic management system for managing unmanned aerial systems (UASs) operating at low-altitude. The system includes surveillance for locating and tracking UASs in uncontrolled airspace, for example, in airspace below 10,000 feet MSL. The system also includes flight rules for safe operation of UASs in uncontrolled airspace. The system further includes computers for processing said surveillance and for applying the flight rules to UASs. The traffic management system may be portable, persistent, or a hybrid thereof.

Modern farming is currently being done by powerful ground equipment or aircraft that weigh several tons and treat uniformly tens of hectares per hour. Automated farming can use small, agile, lightweight, energy-efficient automated robotic equipment that flies to do the same job, even able to farm on a plant-by-plant basis, allowing for new ways of farming. A hybrid airship-drone has both passive lift provided by a gas balloon and active lift provided by propellers. A hybrid airship-drone may be cheaper, more stable in flight, and require less maintenance than other aerial vehicles such as quadrocopters. However, hybrid airship-drones may also be larger in size and have more inertia that needs to be overcome for starting, stopping and turning.

A system and method are described that converts ATC voice instructions into text, and identifies intent wording and data from the text. The intent wording and data are preferably displayed in different formats, and may be included on a map of the aircraft route. Furthermore, a read back of the instructions by the pilot to ATC may be analyzed and compared with the ATC command. If the comparison is faulty, the formats of the intent wording and/or data may be modified further to alert the pilot of the discrepancy.

A drone traffic management system comprising a computer comprising memory means for storing origin coordinates indicating an origin location of a drone, destination coordinates indicating a destination of the drone, and traffic management factors located between the origin location of the drone and the destination of the drone; and processing means for controlling the flight of a drone. This is accomplished by calculating a flight path for the drone to fly automatically from the origin location to the destination location without manual intervention, sending the flight path to the drone, receiving location data of the drone as it travels from the origin location to the destination, re-calculating the flight path of the drone as a function of the traffic management factors and the location data of the drone, and sending the re-calculated flight path to the drone.

Method and system for analyzing and processing information on one or more aircraft flight paths, using a four-dimensional coordinate system including three Cartesian or equivalent coordinates (x, y, z) and a fourth coordinate δ that corresponds to a distance estimated along a reference flight path to a nearest reference path location corresponding to a present location of the aircraft. Use of the coordinate δ, rather than elapsed time t, avoids coupling of along-track error into aircraft altitude and reduces effects of errors on an aircraft landing site. Along-track, cross-track and/or altitude errors are estimated and compared with a permitted error bounding space surrounding the reference flight path.

The automatic method of tracking and organizing the movements of vehicles on the ground in a zone of an airport comprises the steps consisting in: acquiring data relating to the possible presence of at least one body in the zone; analyzing the acquired data; and where necessary as a result of the analysis, defining an action as a function of the result. The method also makes it possible to detect the presence of a foreign body in zones over which airplanes can travel, and in particular on runways.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for safely transporting passengers from pickup locations to destination locations on-demand using automated/pilotless vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. In one implementation, an on-demand passenger transport system includes one or more VTOL aircraft which operate without human pilots, and each of the VTOL aircraft operates under the control of an associated onboard computer. The disclosed system further includes a ground control system which is configured to: receive a service request from a passenger for a transport service of the VTOL aircraft; assign one of the VTOL aircraft to the requesting passenger; process the service request to generate a flight task; transmit the flight task to the assigned VTOL aircraft. The onboard computer of the VTOL aircraft is configured to control a flight of the VTOL aircraft to transport the passenger from a pickup location to a destination location by air based on the flight task.

Status information on plane, passenger, cargo, crew, fuel, food, baggage, maintenance, weather and any other process used to manage airport operations, including expediting aircraft turnaround time for takeoff, is gathered into a common decision support database. The system includes decision support tools to increase the sharing of information between airline, airport, contractors and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to more efficiently and safely manage the service, maintenance and operations of aircraft.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for reducing traffic flow instabilities and increasing vehicle throughput by monitoring the distances and velocities of motor vehicles leading and following a center vehicle and controlling the velocities of the vehicles to maintain a steady relative distance between the center vehicle and the leading and following vehicles. Using distance and speed information derived from both leading and following vehicles reduces the loop gain of feedback needed below one (1) and diminishes traffic instabilities caused by “car following.”

A computer implemented method for an aviation system to manage, consistent with specified system business goals, the temporal assignment of airport gates for use by a plurality of aircraft which are to-be-serviced by specified ground resources, including ground personnel, equipment and supplies, so as to deliver and receive specified passengers, their baggage and cargo during a specified time period, based upon specified data pertaining to the aircraft, passengers and ground resources, includes the steps of: (a) collecting and storing the specified data, (b) processing the data to predict the trajectories of the aircraft, wherein these trajectories including the expected gate arrival time, required ground servicing period and projected departure time of each of the aircraft, (c) processing the data to predict the loads imposed on the ground resources and gates associated with the movement of the passengers, equipment and supplies in relation to the arrival and departure of the aircraft, (d) processing the data, trajectories and loads to identify the various possible ways to distribute the ground system resources and assign the gates so as to meet the time constraints of the predicted trajectories and loads, and (e) assigning to each of the plurality of aircraft a gate for use for a prescribed period, with these assignments being made in such a manner as to allow the aviation system to optimally meet its business goals.

A system and method are provided for employing local, opportunistic Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) information to augment other source “knowledge” of local aircraft position information for improving situational awareness in areas lacking ADS-B coverage provided by other aircraft control agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), other Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs), and/or other Air Traffic Control (ATC) entities. Locally-received, e.g., in a vicinity of a UAV or sUAS, ADS-B positional information is received by a UAV, sUAS or associated ground control station and integrated on a display component of the ground control station, e.g., a pilot display, for the UAV or sUAS. Received positional information is forwarded to other interested users/systems, including those associated with agencies or entities in overall tactical, operational or surveillance control of a particular area of operations, as appropriate as an integrated situational awareness map display picture.

A system is provided for maneuvering a payload in an air space constrained by one or more obstacles, and may include first and second aerial vehicles coupled by a tether to a ground station. Sensor systems and processors in the ground station and aerial vehicles may track obstacles and the tether's and the vehicles' positions and attitude to maneuver the payload and the tether to carry out a mission. The sensor system may include airborne cameras providing data for a scene reconstruction process and simultaneous mapping of obstacles and localization of aerial vehicles relative to the obstacles. The aerial vehicles may include a frame formed substantially of a composite material for preventing contact of the rotors with the tether segments.

A method for ensuring the operation and integrity of a three-dimensional integrated logistical system that includes a plurality of drones and a plurality of service stations; each of the plurality of drones having a plurality of environmental sensors and a plurality of internal sensors. The plurality of drones is routed to a destination location through a fleet management software that monitors the plurality of drones and the plurality of service stations. The fleet management software is able to detect operational issues amongst the plurality of drones and if necessary reroute the plurality of drones to the plurality of service stations in order to resolve said operational issues. A robotic service unit in each of the plurality of service stations is able to autonomously service the plurality of drones in addition to equipping the plurality of drones with a designated payload.

Methods and systems for routing and scheduling maintenance for aircraft. An aircraft routing and maintenance scheduling system generates an aircraft routing proposal based on information describing a possible flight of an aircraft and a maintenance scheduling proposal that corresponds to the aircraft based on information describing a possible maintenance schedule of the aircraft. The system determines a proposed flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment based on the aircraft routing proposal and maintenance scheduling proposal. Thereafter, the system produces a flight assignment plan and maintenance scheduling plan using the proposed flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment when the proposed flight assignment and proposed maintenance scheduling assignment meet a decision criterion describing requirements for aircraft routing and maintenance scheduling.