Aircraft Hazard Data Relay via ADS-B Mesh Networking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems are inadequate for reliably communicating information about flight hazards, such as adverse weather and bird flocks, between aircraft, often requiring pilot intervention and air traffic control involvement, which can be impractical and resource-intensive.
Innovation Solution
A system equipped with sensors on aircraft to monitor environmental hazards and automatically transmit data via ADS-B links or self-organizing mesh networks, allowing for direct information sharing between aircraft without pilot or air traffic control participation, using a combination of sensors like icing, wind, precipitation, and GPS sensors, and re-transmitting critical information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If pilots manually relay hazard warnings to other aircraft, then information sharing is achieved, but it requires pilot intervention and air traffic control involvement which is impractical and resource-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables aircraft to automatically detect hazards using onboard sensors and transmit warning information to other aircraft without requiring pilot intervention or air traffic control involvement. The automated hazard detection and transmission system performs the information sharing function independently, resolving the contradiction by eliminating manual relay operations while maintaining reliable hazard communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of pilots verbally relaying warnings through air traffic control with an automated electronic system using sensors, transmitters, and receivers. This substitution eliminates the need for human intervention in the information relay process while ensuring consistent and reliable hazard communication between aircraft.
2Reliability
If ground systems detect adverse weather and bird flocks, then hazard detection is provided, but detection reliability decreases when aircraft are at distance from ground stations
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses aircraft-mounted sensors as intermediary detection devices that operate independently of ground stations. Each aircraft carries its own suite of sensors (radar, weather radar, bird detection sensors) that can detect hazards in its vicinity without requiring proximity to ground-based detection facilities, thereby maintaining detection reliability over extended distances.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from ground-based two-dimensional detection coverage to three-dimensional airborne detection by equipping each aircraft with onboard sensors capable of detecting hazards in all directions around the aircraft. This dimensional shift allows hazard detection regardless of distance from ground stations, as each aircraft becomes an independent detection node in three-dimensional space.
3Reliability
If pilots focus on handling emergencies, then safety is maintained, but ability to relay warnings to other aircraft is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The automated hazard detection and transmission system performs the warning relay function without requiring pilot attention or intervention. When a pilot encounters a hazard, the system automatically detects the condition through onboard sensors and transmits warning information to other aircraft, allowing the pilot to focus entirely on handling the emergency while the system independently maintains safety communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the flight environment through onboard sensors and automatically transmits hazard warnings to other aircraft when conditions are detected. This feedback mechanism ensures that safety information is continuously updated and shared without requiring pilot input, maintaining both pilot focus on emergencies and ongoing warning relay capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for exchanging information between aircraft (210). Sensors on a first aircraft (210) provide data about the first aircraft's environment, including hazards such as turbulence, icing, lightning, or birds. The system transmits the data to receiving systems in other aircraft (210), which display the data, to warn the pilots flying the other aircraft of potential hazards. The pilot of the first aircraft may supplement the information with visual observations, about birds or unmanned aerial vehicles, for example. In one embodiment, the information is transmitted from aircraft to aircraft over a data link using ADS-B. In another embodiment, a first aircraft may transmit data to a second aircraft, which may relay, or re-transmit, the data to a third aircraft.