99 results about "Air traffic controller" patented technology

A system and method for providing entry-point, boundary-line, and presence intrusion detection by means of an intelligent controller process capable of driving both field alert / alarm systems and security station monitoring devices and for providing occupancy warnings and critical status alerts, one embodiment providing runway occupancy warnings and critical runway status alerts to both flight crew approaching an airfield and air traffic controllers managing ground traffic, the system including: a detection system, airfield output devices (including all FAROS, GAROS and CTAF Runway Occupancy Radio Signals (RORS)), an airfield communications network, a centralized data processing unit that contains all of the algorithms to drive light control, logging, and an optional administrative network layer that hosts a graphical user interface.

A smart airport automation system gathers and reinterprets a wide variety of aircraft and airport related data and information around unattended or non-towered airports. Data is gathered from many different types of sources, and in otherwise incompatible data formats. The smart airport automation system then decodes, assembles, fuses, and broadcasts structured information, in real-time, to aircraft pilots. The fused information is also useful to remotely located air traffic controllers who monitor non-towered airport operations. The system includes a data fusion and distribution computer that imports aircraft position and velocity, weather, and airport specific data. The data inputs are used to compute safe takeoff and landing sequences, and other airport advisory information for participating aircraft.

A system and method is provided for controlling an aircraft. At least one transceiver is provided to receive a voice instruction from an air traffic controller, and transmit a voice response to the air traffic controller. A response logic unit can be provided to interpret the received voice instruction from the air traffic controller, determine a response to the interpreted voice instruction, and translate the interpreted voice instruction to a command suitable for input to at least one autopilot unit. An autopilot unit can also be provided to receive the command from the response logic unit, wherein the command is configured to guide the flight of the unmanned aircraft.

A system and method are provided to support safe integration of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) into the National Airspace Structure in the United States. Substantially real-time data communication provides interested parties with an ability to communicate directly with an operator of the sUAS during system operations. Individual interactive user interfaces are used to implement two way text-like messaging directly with the sUAS control console to enhance safety and reduce conflicts with operations of the sUAS. When an instance arises in which an air traffic controller needs to advise an sUAS operator regarding an unauthorized sUAS mission or a requirement to keep an sUAS clear of a specific block of airspace or specific geographic location due to an immediate, emergent and / or unforeseen event, a means is provided by which to more effectively and more quickly communicate directly with the sUAS operator.

A system and method for engaging in two-way communication between a pilot and an air traffic controller by speech and hearing processes wherein spoken messages are compared to a database of categorized messages for matching and selecting a categorized message for transmission between pilot and air traffic control.

A method and a system for assisting air traffic controllers that automatically detects conflicts between aircraft trajectories and selects the conflicts that can be solved by minor modification(s) of aircraft speed, climbing rates or descending rates and lateral shifts of route. Minor modifications are selected so as to not interfere with current controllers' decision making process thereby circumventing the basic rule of uniqueness of control in a given piece of airspace. The minor modifications are automatically transmitted to aircraft for execution without requiring controllers' prior agreement. Thus, the method solves most conflicts, such that the air traffic delivered to the controllers is free of most of the pre-existing conflicts.

A system and method for providing entry-point, boundary-line, and presence intrusion detection by means of an intelligent controller process capable of driving both field alert / alarm systems and security station monitoring devices and for providing occupancy warnings and critical status alerts, one embodiment providing runway occupancy warnings and critical runway status alerts to both flight crew approaching an airfield and air traffic controllers managing ground traffic, the system including: a detection system, airfield output devices (including all FAROS, GAROS and CTAF Runway Occupancy Radio Signals (RORS)), an airfield communications network, a centralized data processing unit that contains all of the algorithms to drive light control, logging, and an optional administrative network layer that hosts a graphical user interface.

A method for displaying otherwise unseen objects and other data using augmented reality (the mixing of real view with computer generated imagery). The method uses a motorized camera mount that can report the position of a camera on that mount back to a computer. With knowledge of where the camera is looking, and its field of view, the computer can precisely overlay computer-generated imagery onto the video image produced by the camera. The method may be used to present to a user such items as existing weather conditions, hazards, or other data, and presents this information to the user by combining the computer generated images with the user's real environment. These images are presented in such a way as to display relevant location and properties of the object to the system user. The primary intended applications are as navigation aids for air traffic controllers and pilots in training and operations, and use with emergency first responder training and operations to view and avoid / alleviate hazardous material situations. However, the system can be used to display any imagery that needs to correspond to locations in the real world.

The invention discloses a historical radar data based air traffic flow analysis system and method. Aiming at the defects of air traffic flow analysis mainly, the system is designed. The system comprises a server and at least one client, wherein the server is in communication connection with the client and is used for maintaining a database, carrying out statistical analysis of external data received by the client, and storing the statistical analysis results in the database, and the client is used for providing an interface of user interaction and an interface of the external data and the database. The historical radar data is used as a data source, the long-term time segment statistics of historical flow can be actually carried out, and the playback of a historical track and the statistics of instantaneous flow can be carried out; based on the schedule flight property and the airspace property, the combined query of a specific spatial unit can be carried out, and thus the decision support of flow management and the air traffic control service billing are provided to air traffic controllers, and the quantitative basis is provided to airspace capacity assessment and navigation precision checkout.

The invention provides a voice recognition method and a voice recognition device in an air traffic control system. The method comprises the following steps: collecting ground-to-air dialogue voice information from a ground-to-air voice communication link; collecting a PTT signal, segmenting the ground-to-air dialogue voice information according to the PTT signal to generate air traffic controller voice information and driver voice information in an aircraft; and carrying out voice recognition on the air traffic controller voice information and the driver voice information in the aircraft according to a preset air traffic control ground-to-air dialogue grammatical rule bank and a preset air traffic control ground-to-air dialogue keyword bank respectively, and outputting recognition results in corresponding texts. Through using a voice rule and keyword recognition method, the invention still provides accurate voice recognition service in the air traffic control system with high application complexity so as to further improve automation level of air traffic control and navigation safety and reliability in China, and the voice recognition device also can be applied to various complex application scenes in the aviation field.

The invention discloses a smart air traffic control system which comprises a data receiving interface module, a data processing center, an emergency override module, an electronic flying plan display module, a flight monitoring display module and a flight control instruction sending module. The data processing center conducts accurate calculation of the flight plan by receiving accurate real-time flying information of airplanes; a whole flying queue is optimized, including shortening the space between the airplanes, reasonably allocating the take off and land sequence of corresponding runways, changing the landing angle in real time and curved approaching; therefore the efficiency of the whole flying queue is effectively improved, and safety is enhanced; finally, the whole flying plan is displayed on a monitoring displayer of air traffic controllers. The air traffic controllers can observe the order of precedence of the flying queue taking off and landing through the displayer at any time, and adjust the queue sequence by changing parameters such as the taking off / landing paths and the flying speed. Therefore, the commuting rate of the air ports can be improved and the work efficiency of the air traffic controllers can be improved.

A system and method for engaging in two-way communication between a pilot and an air traffic controller by speech and hearing processes wherein spoken messages are compared to a database of categorized messages for matching and selecting a categorized message for transmission between pilot and air traffic control.

A system for aiding the navigation of an aircraft able to be piloted remotely by an operator includes means for transmitting data allowing the operator to dialogue with an air traffic controller according to at least one mode of dialogue and means for monitoring the flight parameters, notably aircraft state parameters and navigation parameters. The system also includes a means for detecting flight events, a means for formulating a message corresponding to a flight event, a means for scheduling the message in a list of messages, and a means for synthesizing the message in a mode of dialogue.

The subject of the present invention is a method for improving route and 4D prediction calculations by FMS in the framework of ATC tactical flight instructions, which method enables the FMS of an aircraft to carry out its usual predictions as precisely as possible when it has left or anticipates leaving its initial flight plan following an instruction from the air traffic controller, and has no instructions telling it where and when to return to the initial flight plan, and the invention is characterized in that it consists in transmitting to the aircraft, from an air traffic control centre, information enabling the FMS system to be aware of traffic crossing points (X1) and control sector changes, and to use this information to predict the coordinates of a point (X2) at which it is supposed to rejoin its initial flight plan at the earliest opportunity after the crossing point that required an alteration of trajectory and at the latest opportunity on the last point of the current sector.

The subject of the present invention is a method for improving route and 4D prediction calculations by FMS in the framework of ATC tactical flight instructions, which method enables the FMS of an aircraft to carry out its usual predictions as precisely as possible when it has left or anticipates leaving its initial flight plan following an instruction from the air traffic controller, and has no instructions telling it where and when to return to the initial flight plan, and the invention is characterized in that it consists in transmitting to the aircraft, from an air traffic control centre, information enabling the FMS system to be aware of traffic crossing points (X1) and control sector changes, and to use this information to predict the coordinates of a point (X2) at which it is supposed to rejoin its initial flight plan at the earliest opportunity after the crossing point that required an alteration of trajectory and at the latest opportunity on the last point of the current sector.

The invention provides a measurement method for workload of an air traffic controller. The method comprises the following steps: A, determining a control load measurement index, wherein the control load measurement index comprises an eye movement index and a voice index; B, recording the eye movement index data corresponding to each eye movement index and the voice index data corresponding to each voice index in real time; C, performing factor analysis on the recorded eye movement index data to calculate the eye movement comprehensive factor of the eye movement index data; D, establishing a control load regression model with the eye movement comprehensive factor and the voice index as input factors and the control workload value as an output factor. According to the method, the workload of the controller can be measured in real time without interference, and the practicability is high.

A system for aiding the navigation of an aircraft able to be piloted remotely by an operator includes means for transmitting data allowing the operator to dialogue with an air traffic controller according to at least one mode of dialogue and means for monitoring the flight parameters, notably aircraft state parameters and navigation parameters. The system also includes a means for detecting flight events, a means for formulating a message corresponding to a flight event, a means for scheduling the message in a list of messages, and a means for synthesizing the message in a mode of dialogue.

The invention relates to an air traffic control real-time regulation effectiveness evaluation system, in particular to a real-time regulation effectiveness evaluation system for air traffic controllers. The system comprises a real-time operation data acquisition module, a real-time operation data processing module, a central database, a history operation data acquisition module and a real-time regulation effectiveness evaluation module, wherein the real-time operation data acquisition module is used for acquiring position information data, flight information data, flight plant data of an air traffic control automatic system, air-ground communication data and radar comprehensive flight path data; the real-time operation data processing module is used for filtering and processing acquired real-time operation data; after the processed real-time operation data is transmitted to an index assessment module, an obtained index is saved in the central database; the central database is used for storing and managing data; the history operation data acquisition module is used for acquiring history operation data; and the real-time regulation effectiveness evaluation module comprises a quantification evaluation module and a real-time regulation effectiveness comprehensive evaluation module. The air traffic control real-time regulation effectiveness evaluation system is applied to the field of civil aviation air traffic control.

A system and method to improve efficiency in aircraft maneuvers meant to accommodate time-related constraints in air traffic. Information related to flight performance and atmospheric conditions is gathered onboard an aircraft, then transmitted to an air traffic control center. In the event of a delay or any other event which necessitates an alteration in an aircraft trajectory, the data is sent to a decision support tool to compute and provide alternative trajectories, preferably including operator-preferred trajectories, within air traffic constraints. Air traffic controllers can then offer an alternative trajectory to an aircraft that is more efficient, cost effective, and / or preferable to the aircraft operator.

The invention is a method for displaying otherwise unseen objects and other data using augmented reality (the mixing of real view with computer generated imagery). The method uses a motorized camera mount that can report the position of a camera on that mount back to a computer. With knowledge of where the camera is looking, and the size of its field of view, the computer can precisely overlay computer-generated imagery onto the video image produced by the camera. The method may be used to present to a user such items as existing weather conditions, hazards, or other data, and presents this information to the user by combining the computer generated images with the user's real environment. These images are presented in such a way as to display relevant location and properties of the object to the system user. The primary intended applications are as navigation aids for air traffic controllers and pilots in training and operations, and use with emergency first responder training and operations to view and avoid / alleviate hazardous material situations, however the system can be used to display any imagery that needs to correspond to locations in the real world.

The invention discloses a method for measuring workload for air traffic controllers, which belongs to the field of air traffic control. The method comprises the steps of: firstly, classifying basic air traffic events; then, establishing the classification of basic control behaviors based on human ergonomics; counting and analyzing control conversations through a radar voice recorder; establishing a model of easy observation for counting the workload of the controllers; then, obtaining the workload of a basic control unit determined through the air traffic events; determining a correcting coefficient of the workload; finally, correcting the model of easy observation for counting the workload of the controllers by using the coefficient; and determining the model for measuring the workload of the controllers. According to the invention, accurate and quantitive measurement of the workload of the controllers can be realized; and the invention provides a basis for training control skills of civil aviation, estimating airspace sector capacity and planning and designing airspace.

The invention relates to a flight inference system and a method thereof; wherein, the flight inference system comprises an inference module and a display module; the inference module is used to obtain flight object collection and airspace restriction condition object collection within the scope of inference time, infer flight movement at each inference time according to the flight object collection, set monitoring state at each inference time according to the airspace restriction condition object and flight object collection and send the flight movement and monitoring state to a display module; the flight movement comprises flight number, flight position information, flight course information and flight state; the monitoring state comprises airspace alarming state and flight alarming state; the display module is used to display movement and monitoring state of the flight. Based on the flight object collection and airspace restriction condition object collection, the invention carries out inference and imitation on the flight scheduler, can effectively evaluate the formulated flight scheduler, thus ensuring scientific and rational flight scheduler, easing airspace traffic pressure and assisting work of the air traffic controller.

An apparatus and method of presenting air traffic data to an air traffic controller are provided. Air traffic data including a two dimensional spatial location and altitude for a plurality of aircraft is received. A disparity value is determined based on the altitude for each aircraft of the plurality of aircraft. Left and right eye images are generated of the plurality of aircraft where at least one of the left and right eye images is based on the determined disparity value. The left and right eye images are simultaneously displayed to the air traffic controller on a display. The simultaneously displayed images provide an apparent three-dimensional separation of each of the aircraft of the plurality of aircraft on the display.

The invention discloses a civil aviation flight operation safety verification method and a device thereof, and aims to provide a civil aviation flight operation safety verification method and a device thereof for improving the safety of civil aviation flight. The method comprises the steps: collecting land-air conversation information of ground air traffic controllers and pilots, establishing a land-air conversion voice library, and performing voice recognition by a voice recognition algorithm; installing a voice print database and a voice recognition and comparison software system on each civil aviation aircraft and each ground-air traffic control center; collecting ground and air radio conversation information, and performing voice analysis by utilizing the voice recognition and comparison software; through an image recognition technique, obtaining airspeed, course, height and vertical speed signal selected by the pilot from a PFD display and an MCP panel of each aircraft; performing comparison analysis on the obtained pilot operation signal and a command, and if the obtained pilot operation signal and the command are not matched, giving out an acousto-optical prompt alarm; and providing the voice analysis results for the pilots and the air traffic controllers as reference.

Embodiments provide an advanced decision support tool to enable automated aircraft sequencing and conflict detection and resolution. The tool can be used to assist an air traffic controller (ATC) in determining merging, sequencing, and spacing resolutions; communicating the resolutions to the aircraft; and monitoring execution and compliance with the provided resolutions. According to embodiments, the tool can incorporate a broad range of inputs (e.g., surveillance data, weather information, aircraft equipage, etc.) and can be configured according to different aircraft sequencing modes of operation (e.g., one mode of operation is to minimize aircraft deviations necessary to resolve a particular conflict). In an embodiment, the tool includes a controller interface, which may be integrated within the controller interface of existing ATC systems or implemented separately. Embodiments can be implemented using software, hardware, or a combination thereof.

The invention provides an air traffic control mid-term conflict detection method and device. The method comprises the following steps: determining a protection region of each airplane according to error type of a monitoring airplane group; determining a flight path distribution curve of each airplane; inputting the determined flight path distribution curves to a preset airplane encounter probability model, and carrying out calculation to obtain collision probability of a second monitoring airplane when entering the protection region of a first monitoring airplane; and determining collision danger level of the monitoring airplane group according to the collision probability and preset threshold probability combination. According to the method and device, by introducing various uncertain factor trajectory distribution curves and calculating the collision probability by utilizing the airplane encounter probability model, and meanwhile, by carrying out comparison on the threshold probability combination and the collision probability to judge the collision danger level, air traffic control mid-term conflict probability prediction accuracy is improved, and reference is provided for an air-traffic controller for airspace conflict resolution.

The invention discloses a flight safety management and control service method. In the invention, through correlatively processing a low-altitude aircraft course, a flight path and a spatial domain, an air traffic controller uses a man-machine interaction mode to complete flight conflict processing of a low altitude airspace aircraft and spatial domain conflict management so as to realize safety management and control of low-altitude spatial domain flight. The method has an advantage that through correlatively processing the low-altitude aircraft course, the flight path and the spatial domain, the air traffic controller uses the man-machine interaction mode to complete flight conflict processing of the low altitude airspace aircraft and spatial domain conflict management so as to realize safety management and control of low-altitude spatial domain flight.

A system and method to improve efficiency in aircraft maneuvers meant to accommodate time-related constraints in air traffic, information related to flight performance and atmospheric conditions is gathered onboard an aircraft, then transmitted to an air traffic control center, in the event of a delay or any other event which necessitates an alteration in an aircraft trajectory, the data is sent to a decision support tool to compute and provide alternative trajectories, preferably including operator- preferred trajectories, within air traffic constraints. Air traffic controllers can then offer an alternative trajectory to an aircraft that is more efficient, cost effective, and / or preferable to the aircraft operator.

The present invention relates to a system for aiding the identification and control of aircraft that are present in an air sector to be monitored. The system includes a voice recognition means for analysing oral communications exchanged between the air-traffic controller and the pilots of aircraft present in the air sector, and a management means for making a comparison between data delivered by the voice recognition means and stored identifiers representative of respective aircraft expected to be present in the air sector.

An aerial, landing, takeoff, aircraft collision avoidance system (10) that automatically operates an audible and visual display warning system within an aircraft by sensing when there is an intruder aircraft approaching on the same runway, intersecting runway, or same airway during climb, descent, and midair flight by employing a five-way interactive communication system using laser and radio wave technology and, thereby, providing added safety and protection for users of the system and oncoming aircrafts while being designed to automatically open a simultaneous three-way line of communication between pilots and air traffic controllers during crisis; identify and alert aircrafts what runways are presently in use during landings, taxiing, and takeoffs; and identify what runways are in use to taxiing aircrafts that may inadvertently cross a runway without clearance from air traffic control.