A method and apparatus for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB

Abstract

The application discloses a method and device for interactively displaying flight procedures in an electronic flight bag (EFB). The method belongs to the field of electronic digital data processing and comprises the following steps: analyzing a PDF chart file to obtain marked text; extracting chart basic information from the marked text; extracting a waypoint to calculate a coordinate conversion relationship; extracting a line segment to form a track segment and combine the track segments into a flight track; and combining the chart basic information and the flight track to form flight procedure data. The method can accurately search for flight procedures in the EFB and highlight the flight track on the PDF chart, thereby improving the chart reading efficiency of pilots and improving flight safety.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of flight procedure data processing, in particular to a method and device for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB. BACKGROUND

[0002] An electronic flight bag (EFB) is a portable tablet computer device used by pilots to consult aviation data in the cockpit. Flight procedures include standard instrument departure procedures, approach procedures and arrival procedures, which specify the flight trajectory and height, speed and other flight parameters of an aircraft during takeoff and landing. They are important information that pilots must consult during takeoff and landing. PDF format charts are the carriers of flight procedures published by official authorities of various countries. Pilots have always consulted PDF charts on EFB devices to understand detailed information of flight procedures.

[0003] On the one hand, in order to facilitate use in the small space of the cockpit, the maximum size of an EFB device does not exceed A4 paper. On the other hand, with the increasing busy degree of airport airspace, flight procedures drawn on charts are increasingly dense, and often ten or even dozens of flight procedures are crowded on a chart, with flight trajectories intersecting each other, and no distinction between line thickness and color. Although EFB supports chart zooming and other operations, pilots still make mistakes and miss flight procedures from time to time, which poses a safety hazard.

[0004] Although the prior art can generate flight procedure graphics by ARINC424 encoding or AIXM5.1 data and display them in EFB, there is no uniform standard for default parameters introduced in the graphic generation process, and the shapes of generated flight procedure trajectories are different, which cannot completely coincide with flight procedures in PDF charts. Moreover, the accuracy and compliance of flight procedure trajectories generated directly from data cannot be compared with PDF charts published by civil aviation authorities of various countries, and they cannot serve as legal flight data for pilots.

[0005] All countries publish charts in accordance with the chart compilation standards stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and information such as the name of a flight procedure, the corresponding runway, the navigation mode, the start / endpoint of a flight procedure, and the like, which is convenient for screening flight procedures, is only marked in the chart. Therefore, the chart directory of the current EFB device mainly includes airports, approach / departure / arrival types, chart Figure Three directories, and charts as the minimum screening condition. Pilots cannot quickly locate a chart or a flight procedure according to the name of a flight procedure, the corresponding runway, the start / endpoint of a flight procedure, the navigation mode and the like, and can only search for a flight procedure by eye when opening a PDF chart. During the process of operating an aircraft for takeoff and landing, this inefficient method of consulting flight procedures has a great impact on flight efficiency and safety.

[0006] Citation Document 1: Chinese Invention Patent, "A method for drawing flight procedures in EFB", authorized publication number: CN115390981B. This invention discloses a method for generating AIXM5.1 format flight procedure data from terminal area charts, parsing and generating GeoJson graphic data, and displaying flight procedures on the graphic component of EFB. The disadvantages of this method are that it needs to manually read the map and manually compile the chart information into AIXM5.1 code in advance, and it cannot achieve complete automation. Secondly, during the generation of GeoJson graphic data, default climb rate, default speed, default radius and other preset values are introduced, and the generated trajectory cannot completely coincide with the flight trajectory in the PDF chart. Finally, the flight trajectory graph generated by the GeoJson data driven by this method has not been authenticated, and compared with the official published PDF chart, it lacks compliance.

[0007] Citation Document 2: Chinese Invention Patent Application, "A portable electronic flight bag system suitable for large aircraft platform", publication number: CN114443572A. This invention application discloses a portable electronic flight bag system, which manages airport charts in the form of a data module and can only display charts in the form of PDF files, and cannot highlight or plot flight trajectories on the charts. SUMMARY

[0008] To solve the problem that the PDF chart displayed in the EFB cannot perform fine condition retrieval on the flight procedure, and cannot highlight a single flight procedure on the PDF chart, the method and device of the present application automatically extract flight procedure trajectories and marked text from the terminal area chart PDF file, accurately retrieve flight procedures on the EFB device according to runway, navigation mode, flight procedure name or start / end point, and display the selected flight procedure in a highlighted manner on the PDF chart, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of pilots reading charts in the air and improving flight safety.

[0009] In a first aspect, the present application provides a method for interactively displaying flight procedures in EFB, comprising the following steps:

[0010] S1: Parsing a PDF format terminal area chart file to obtain marked text with a fixed structure.

[0011] S2: Extracting the airport, runway and navigation mode of the chart from the marked text according to a preset chart template.

[0012] S3: Extracting the names and sheet coordinates of all waypoints from the marked text, and generating a conversion relationship between sheet coordinates and latitude and longitude coordinates.

[0013] Further, the steps include:

[0014] S3-1: Select the two farthest waypoints from the waypoint set, extract the latitude and longitude coordinates of the waypoints from the waypoint data set published by the civil aviation authority according to the waypoint name; calculate the map distance according to the map coordinates of the two waypoints, calculate the actual distance according to the latitude and longitude coordinates, and calculate the map scale = map distance / actual distance, so as to calculate the map scale. According to the map coordinates of the first waypoint, the map distance and the direction of the point to the map origin (the lower left corner of the map) are calculated, and the actual distance of the point to the map origin is calculated according to the scale, and then the latitude and longitude coordinates of the map origin are calculated.

[0015] S3-2: Calculate the latitude and longitude coordinates of the third point on the map according to the scale and the latitude and longitude of the map origin.

[0016] Longitude Lon = Lon0 + (X×Sc) / (R×cos(Lat0));

[0017] Latitude Lat = Lat0 + (Y×Sc) / R;

[0018] Where Lon0 and Lat0 are the longitude and latitude of the map origin, X and Y are the map coordinates of the third point, Sc is the map scale, and R is the earth radius.

[0019] S4: Extract the map coordinates of all types of line elements from the marked text, and convert the line segments into track segments.

[0020] Further, the steps include:

[0021] S4-1: Calculate the length and direction of the line segment according to the map coordinates of the line segment. Set the line segment with a length greater than the threshold value λ as a straight track segment. Set the line segment with a length less than or equal to λ as a curve segment, and combine the curve segments with the same direction and incrementally increasing or decreasing direction into an arc track segment. Calculate the center coordinates and radius of the arc track segment, and regenerate all points on the arc track segment according to the center coordinates and radius.

[0022] S4-2: Convert the map coordinates of all points on the track segment into latitude and longitude coordinates according to the coordinate conversion relationship, and calculate the actual distance of the track segment according to the latitude and longitude coordinates.

[0023] S5: Extract the flight procedure name, name position and name character direction from the marked text to generate a graphic text unit, match the graphic text unit with the track segment, and combine each track segment to generate a flight track.

[0024] Further, the steps include:

[0025] S5-1: Compare the text unit with the track segment, if the name position is within a threshold distance δ from the track segment position and the name text direction is the same as the track segment direction, then name the track segment as the flight procedure name.

[0026] S5-2: Combine multiple track segments with the same name into one flight track, and set the name of the flight track as the flight procedure name.

[0027] S5-3: For the flight track with breakpoints, insert the track segment without name but connected to the breakpoints of the flight track into the flight track.

[0028] S5-4: Name the start point and the end point of the flight track as the name of the waypoint coinciding with the start point or end point position.

[0029] S6: Combine the airport, runway, navigation mode, chart file name, flight procedure name, flight track start point, flight track end point and flight track to generate the flight procedure data.

[0030] In a second aspect, the present application provides a device for interactive display of flight procedures in EFB, comprising:

[0031] File storage module: for storing all terminal area chart files for pilots to browse.

[0032] Database module: for storing flight procedure data and waypoint data set.

[0033] Interactive module: for presenting data options of 4 levels of airport, runway, navigation mode and flight procedure start point or end point in the interface, and being configured to respond to selection operation to present lower level data options in the interface according to the selection.

[0034] File processing module: for obtaining the airport selected by the user from the interactive module, extracting the terminal area chart file corresponding to the airport from the file storage module, processing the chart file according to the above method, and storing the generated flight procedure data into the database module.

[0035] Graphics module: for responding to the selection operation of the user in the interactive module. Retrieve the flight track from the database module, and retrieve the corresponding chart file from the file storage module. Load the chart file into the graphics module, and load the flight track into the graphics module with high resolution color.

[0036] Further, the graphics module further comprises: responding to the operation of the user simultaneously selecting the start point and the end point of the flight procedure in the interactive module: retrieving the approach flight procedure satisfying the start point and the end point conditions from the database module, and displaying the approach flight procedure and the approach flight procedure and the corresponding chart at the same time.

[0037] Further, the graphics module further comprises: performing a mapping matrix transformation operation according to the scale, translation distance and rotation angle of the chart, and updating the sheet coordinates of the flight procedure track, so that the size and position change of the flight procedure track is consistent with the chart.

[0038] In a third aspect, the present application provides a portable electronic device, comprising: at least one processor, a memory and a touch display screen.

[0039] The memory is used for storing computer execution instructions.

[0040] The processor is used for executing the method of interactively displaying the flight procedure in the EFB.

[0041] The touch display screen is used for implementing the interaction module and the graphics module.

[0042] The present application has the following advantages:

[0043] The method provided by the present application realizes direct extraction of structured text from an official published PDF chart file, and automatic generation of flight procedure data and tracks according to the extracted text, and the extracted tracks completely coincide with the PDF chart, thereby avoiding the situation that the flight tracks generated by other methods through default parameters are inconsistent with the published flight procedure of the chart. In addition, according to the method and the extracted data, the EFB device and equipment provided by the present application realize fine search of runways, flight procedure names and start and end points of the flight procedure, can accurately match the selected flight procedure in a complex chart graph, and can display the track of the selected flight procedure on the PDF original graph in high light superposition, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of pilots in checking the chart and improving flight safety. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0044] Figure 1 The main step diagram of the flight procedure data generation method for the present embodiment.

[0045] Figure 2 The flowchart of the flight procedure data generation method for the present embodiment.

[0046] Figure 3 The schematic diagram of all flight procedure tracks generated for the present embodiment.

[0047] Figure 4 The schematic diagram of the module composition of the device for the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] In order to make the purpose, technical scheme and advantages of the present application clearer, further detailed description of the present application will be given below in combination with the drawings and specific embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application, and are not used to limit the present application.

[0049] Currently, pilots mainly retrieve and browse flight procedures through the PDF chart displayed in the EFB. With more and more flight procedures on the chart, the way of retrieving flight procedures by the naked eye is very time-consuming, and the selected flight procedure track cannot be highlighted on the chart. The intersection and overlapping section between flight tracks on the chart are numerous, and the line color and thickness are the same, which is very easy to cause confusion and omission. This traditional flight procedure retrieval and display method causes serious trouble to pilots.

[0050] Based on this, the present application provides a method and device for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB, which can automatically extract flight procedure information from a chart PDF file and perform fine condition retrieval and superimposed highlight display of flight tracks on the chart in the EFB, thereby improving the reading efficiency of pilots and improving safety.

[0051] An embodiment of the present application is to adopt the method and device for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB.

[0052] As shown in Figure 1 , the method of an embodiment of the present application comprises the following steps:

[0053] S1: Analyze the PDF chart file to obtain the marked text;

[0054] S2: Extract the airport, runway and navigation mode;

[0055] S3: Extract the waypoint to generate the coordinate conversion relationship;

[0056] S4: Extract the line segment and convert it to a track segment;

[0057] S5: Combine the track segments to generate a flight track;

[0058] S6: Generate flight procedure data.

[0059] The detailed processing process of the method of the embodiment is shown in Figure 2 :

[0060] S1: Analyze the ZBAA airport departure chart PDF file to obtain the marked text in Markdown format.

[0061] S2: According to the preset chart template, extract the airport, runway and navigation mode of the chart from the marked text.

[0062] As shown, according to the position of each content in the chart template, the airport name, runway = "RWY01 / 36L / 36R", and navigation mode = "RNAV" are parsed from the marked file.

[0063] S3: Extract the names and sheet coordinates of all waypoints from the marked text, and generate the conversion relationship between sheet coordinates and latitude and longitude coordinates.

[0064] S3-1: Calculate the sheet distance between each point according to the sheet coordinates, and determine the two points with the farthest distance: BOTPU and IGMOR, with sheet coordinates (47, 149) and (288, 12) respectively. According to the waypoint data set published by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the latitude and longitude coordinates of the two points are (N395938, E1172849) and (N384911, E1180127) respectively.

[0065] S3-2: Calculate the latitude and longitude coordinates of any third point on the chart, such as AA437, with sheet coordinates (72, 189). The process of calculating the latitude and longitude coordinates of AA437 is as follows:

[0066] According to the latitude and longitude coordinates of BOTPU and IGMORP, the actual distance between the two points is 225000 meters;

[0067] According to the sheet coordinates, the distance between BOTPU and IGMORP on the chart is 277 millimeters;

[0068] The chart scale Sc is calculated as: (277 / 225000000) = 1:812274;

[0069] The sheet distance between BOTPU and the origin point P0 (the lower left corner of the chart) is 156 millimeters, and the direction is 72.5°. According to the scale, the distance between BOTPU and P0 is 126714 meters, and the latitude and longitude coordinates of the origin point P0 are (Lat0 = N393804, Lon0 = E1140355).

[0070] The horizontal actual distance Xm of AA437 to the origin point P0 is 58484 meters, and the vertical actual distance Ym is 153520 meters;

[0071] Calculate the latitude and longitude coordinates of P3: longitude Lon = Lon0 + Xm / (R×cos(Lat0)); latitude Lat = Lat0+ Ym / R; where R is the Earth's radius 6371393 meters;

[0072] The latitude and longitude coordinates of AA437 are calculated as (N401803, E1154459).

[0073] According to the above process, the latitude and longitude coordinates of any point on the chart can be calculated.

[0074] S4: Extract the sheet coordinates of all line elements of type line segment from the marked text, and convert the line segments to track segments.

[0075] S4-1: Calculate the length and direction of the line segment based on the map coordinates. Set a length threshold λ = 1 cm, and set line segments longer than 1 cm as straight line segments, and line segments shorter than 1 cm as curved segments. Merge connected curved segments with equal increasing or decreasing directions into arc trajectory segments.

[0076] Calculate the center coordinates and radius of the arc trajectory segment, and regenerate all points on the arc trajectory segment based on the center coordinates and radius.

[0077] S4-2: Based on the conversion relationship, convert the map coordinates of all points on the trajectory segment to latitude and longitude coordinates, and calculate the actual distance of the trajectory segment based on the latitude and longitude coordinates.

[0078] S5: Extract the flight procedure name, name location, and name text direction from the marked text to generate graphic units, match the graphic units with the trajectory segments, and combine the trajectory segments to generate the flight trajectory.

[0079] S5-1: Set the position threshold δ=5 mm. If the position distance between the graphic unit and the trajectory segment is less than 5 mm, and the direction of the name text is the same as the direction of the trajectory segment, then name the trajectory segment as the flight procedure name.

[0080] S5-2: Combine multiple trajectory segments with the same flight procedure name into a single flight trajectory, such as the departure flight procedure ELKUR-9YD, which takes off from the runway and flies to the ELKUR point.

[0081] S5-3: For discontinuous flight paths, insert a flight path segment that does not have a flight procedure name but is connected to the flight path into the flight path.

[0082] If there is a break in the trajectory of ELKUR-9YD between points AA452 and AA435 without the flight procedure name being marked, insert the straight trajectory segment AA452-AA435 into the flight trajectory of flight procedure ELKUR-9YD.

[0083] S5-4: Name the start and end points of the flight path as the names of waypoints that coincide with the start or end point: Set the start point of the flight path ELKUR-9YD to empty and the end point to ELKUR.

[0084] like Figure 3 As shown, the marked text is extracted and all generated flight paths are processed.

[0085] S6: Combine airport, runway, navigation method, chart file name, flight procedure name, flight trajectory start point, flight trajectory end point, and flight trajectory to generate flight procedure data.

[0086] The airport name, runway "RWY01 / 36L / 36R", navigation mode "RNAV", chart file name "ZBAAAD2.24-7A", flight procedure name ELKUR-9YD, flight trajectory end point ELKUR and all point coordinates on the flight trajectory are combined into a complete flight procedure data.

[0087] As shown in Figure 4 , the device of an embodiment of the application comprises:

[0088] a file storage module for storing all terminal area chart files for pilots to browse.

[0089] a database module for storing flight procedure data and waypoint data sets.

[0090] an interactive module for presenting data options of four levels of airport, runway, navigation mode and flight procedure start point or end point in the interface; and configured to respond to a selection operation to present lower level data options in the interface according to the selection.

[0091] A screenshot of the device of the embodiment, the left side is the interactive module, presenting a cascading menu for refined filtering of flight procedures, and the pilot can select the airport ZBAA, the runway RUNWAY 36L, the flight procedure trajectory end point IDKEX, the navigation mode RNAV, and the precise departure procedure IDKE5Y from the 36L runway of the airport in sequence from the interface.

[0092] a file processing module for obtaining the airport selected by the user from the interactive module, extracting the terminal area chart file corresponding to the airport from the file storage module, processing the chart file according to the method, and storing the generated flight procedure data into the database module.

[0093] a graphics module for responding to the selection operation of the user in the interactive module; retrieving the flight trajectory from the database module; retrieving the corresponding chart file from the file storage module. Loading the chart file into the graphics module, and loading the flight trajectory in high-resolution color into the graphics module.

[0094] A screenshot of the electronic device of the embodiment, the right side is the graphics module, according to the selection of the user in the left interactive module, the ZBAA airport AD2.24-7A.pdf chart file is loaded in the right graphics module first, and the complete flight trajectory of the flight procedure IDKE5Y is highlighted and plotted on this PDF chart.

[0095] The graphic module further comprises: in response to the user's operation of simultaneously selecting the start point and the end point of the flight procedure in the interaction module, retrieving the approach flight procedure meeting the start point and the end point conditions and the approach flight procedure with the end point as the start point from the database module, and simultaneously displaying the approach flight procedure and the approach flight procedure and the corresponding aeronautical chart.

[0096] The graphic module further comprises: performing mapping matrix transformation operation and updating the sheet coordinates of the flight procedure trajectory according to the zoom ratio, the translation distance and the rotation angle of the aeronautical chart, so that the flight procedure trajectory and the aeronautical chart always keep the relative position consistent.

[0097] The above is only one embodiment of the present application, and does not limit the present application in any form. Any simple modification, equivalent change and modification made according to the technical essence of the present application to the above embodiment still belongs to the protection scope of the technical solution of the present application.

Claims

1. A method of interactively displaying a flight procedure in an EFB, characterized by, The method comprises the following steps: S1: parsing a PDF format terminal area chart file to obtain a marked text with a fixed structure; S2: extracting an airport, a runway and a navigation mode of a chart from the marked text according to a preset chart template; S3: extracting the name and sheet coordinates of all waypoints from the marked text, and generating a conversion relationship between the sheet coordinates and the longitude and latitude coordinates; S4: extracting all types of line segment graphic elements from the marked text, and converting the line segments into track segments, which comprises: S4-1: calculating the length and direction of the line segments according to the sheet coordinates of the line segments; setting the line segments with a length exceeding a threshold λ as straight track segments; setting the line segments with a length less than or equal to λ as curved track segments, and combining the curved track segments with a first end connected to a second end and with an equivalent increment or decrement in direction into arc track segments; calculating the center coordinates and radius of the arc track segments, and regenerating all points on the arc track segments according to the center coordinates and the radius; S4-2: converting the sheet coordinates of all points on the track segments into longitude and latitude coordinates according to the conversion relationship, and calculating the actual distance of the track segments according to the longitude and latitude coordinates; S5: extracting a flight procedure name, a name position and a name character direction from the marked text to generate a graphic-text unit; matching the graphic-text unit with the track segments, and combining the track segments to generate a flight track, which comprises: S5-1: comparing the graphic-text unit with the track segments, and if the name position of the graphic-text unit is less than a threshold δ from the position of the track segments, and the name character direction of the graphic-text unit is the same as the direction of the track segments, then the track segments are named as the flight procedure name; S5-2: combining multiple track segments with the same name into a flight track, and setting the name of the flight track as the flight procedure name; S5-3: for the flight track with a breakpoint, inserting a track segment without a name but connected to the first end or the second end of the breakpoint of the flight track into the flight track; S5-4: naming the start point and the end point of the flight track as the name of the waypoint coinciding with the position of the start point or the end point; S6: combining an airport, a runway, a navigation mode, a chart file name, a flight procedure name, a flight track start point, a flight track end point and a flight track to generate flight procedure data.

2. The method for interactively displaying a flight procedure in an EFB of claim 1, wherein, The conversion relationship derivation process in S3 is as follows: S3-1: selecting two farthest waypoints from the waypoints, and extracting the longitude and latitude coordinates of the waypoints from a waypoint data set published by a civil aviation authority according to the waypoint name; calculating the sheet distance according to the sheet coordinates of the two waypoints, and calculating the actual distance according to the longitude and latitude coordinates, so as to calculate the chart scale; and further calculating the longitude and latitude coordinates of the sheet origin; S3-2: calculating the longitude and latitude coordinates of a third point on the chart according to the chart scale and the longitude and latitude coordinates of the sheet origin, and the calculation formula is: Longitude Lon = Lon0 + (X × Sc) / (R × cos(Lat0)); Latitude Lat = Lat0 + (Y × Sc) / R; wherein Lon0 and Lat0 are the longitude and latitude of the sheet origin, X and Y are the sheet coordinates of the third point, Sc is the chart scale, and R is the earth radius.

3. A device for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB, characterized in that, The method comprises the following steps: a file storage module for storing all terminal area chart files for pilots to browse; a database module for storing flight procedure data as claimed in the method of claim 1 for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB and waypoint data sets as claimed in step S3-1 of the method of claim 2 for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB; an interaction module for presenting data options of four levels of airports, runways, navigation ways and flight procedure start or end points in an interface; and being configured to present lower level data options in the interface according to the selection; a file processing module for obtaining a user selected airport from the interaction module, extracting a terminal area chart file corresponding to the airport from the file storage module, processing the chart file according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 2, and storing the generated flight procedure data into the database module; a graphics module for responding to a user selection operation in the interaction module; retrieving the flight trajectory generated in step S5 of the method of claim 1 for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB from the database module; retrieving a corresponding chart file from the file storage module; loading the chart file into the graphics module and loading the flight trajectory into the graphics module in high resolution color.

4. The apparatus for interactively displaying a flight procedure in an EFB of claim 3, wherein, the graphics module is configured to respond to a user operation of simultaneously selecting a start point and an end point of a flight procedure in the interaction module; retrieve an approach flight procedure satisfying the start point and end point conditions and an approach flight procedure with the end point as the start point from the database module; and simultaneously display the approach flight procedure and the approach flight procedure and corresponding chart.

5. The apparatus for interactively displaying a flight procedure in an EFB of claim 3, wherein, the graphics module is configured to perform mapping matrix transformation operation and update the chart coordinates of the flight procedure trajectory according to the zooming scale, panning distance and rotation angle of the chart, so that the size and position changes of the flight procedure trajectory are consistent with the chart.

6. A portable electronic device, characterized by: comprising at least one processor, a memory and a touch display screen; the memory stores computer execution instructions; the processor is configured to execute the computer execution instructions to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 2 for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB; the touch display screen is configured to implement the interaction module and the graphics module in the device of claim 3 for interactively displaying flight procedures in an EFB.

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