Aircraft Descent Rate Monitoring with Precomputed Thresholds
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Solution Overview
Problem
The sheer volume of flight data from ADS-B systems makes it challenging to derive meaningful information, and existing systems lack real-time monitoring of aggressive aircraft descents without knowledge of aircraft mass, engine model, or local ambient temperature.
Innovation Solution
A flight data processing system calculates aircraft-specific descent rate thresholds based on mass and speed values, using commercial aircraft performance databases to identify aggressive descents and provide real-time alerts, independent of temperature variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If brute-force approach is used to process massive ADS-B data, then complete data processing is achieved, but bandwidth and processing resources are prohibitively consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the most critical descent rate parameters from the massive ADS-B data stream, rather than processing all flight data. By focusing specifically on vertical rate information and comparing it against pre-calculated thresholds, the system achieves effective monitoring while consuming minimal processing resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calculations of descent rate thresholds based on aircraft mass and speed values before actual descent monitoring begins. These pre-computed thresholds are stored and readily available for comparison, eliminating the need for complex real-time calculations during actual descent detection, thus reducing processing resource consumption.
2Device complexity
If descent rate monitoring is performed without aircraft mass and speed data, then system complexity is reduced, but measurement precision of aggressive descent detection deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates descent rate thresholds using aircraft mass and speed data before monitoring begins. These thresholds are stored in a database and retrieved during actual descent monitoring, eliminating the need for complex real-time mass and speed measurements while maintaining detection precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces pre-calculated descent rate thresholds as an intermediary between raw ADS-B data and aggressive descent detection. These thresholds, computed offline using mass and speed information, serve as a mediator that enables accurate detection without requiring continuous access to aircraft mass and speed data during monitoring.
3Reliability
If real-time alerts are provided for all descent events, then monitoring coverage is improved, but false alerts from erroneous data increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter basis for alert generation from raw descent rate values to corrected descent rates that account for data quality. By comparing against thresholds and evaluating the plausibility of descent events based on multiple parameters (altitude, speed, mass), the system maintains comprehensive monitoring coverage while filtering out false alerts from erroneous data.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where alert generation is based on comparing actual descent rates against pre-calculated thresholds and evaluating the consistency of descent events with expected aircraft performance. This feedback loop enables the system to distinguish between genuine aggressive descents and erroneous data, maintaining high monitoring coverage while reducing false alerts.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure provides a system that includes an ingress module arranged to receive flight data comprising a descent rate value and an altitude value; a data store comprising descent rate threshold values of at least one aircraft model, the descent rate threshold values associated, in the data store, with pressure altitude values; a descent classification module that is operably coupled to the ingress module and the data store and adapted to compare the descent rate value with the descent rate threshold values; an alert module adapted to provide, in response to the descent classification module comparing the descent rate value that exceeds at least one of the descent rate threshold values, an alert signal to a graphic user interface that is operably coupled to the alert module.