Aircraft Lateral Trajectory Detours With Progressive Polygon Screening
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems require significant processing resources and time to automatically determine a safe, flyable trajectory for an aircraft in flight to a georeferenced destination while respecting a vertical trajectory profile, especially considering obstacles and the aircraft's operational state.
Innovation Solution
An automatic trajectory generation method that uses electronic circuitry on board the aircraft to obtain obstacle polygons, evaluate direct and vertex bypass trajectories, and iteratively choose new aircraft positions to find a flyable lateral trajectory that avoids obstacles, ensuring a predetermined distance margin and respecting the vertical profile.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automatic trajectory generation considers all obstacles and operational states, then trajectory safety is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the trajectory generation process into distinct phases: evaluating direct trajectories first, then evaluating vertex bypass trajectories only when necessary. This segmentation allows the system to quickly determine safe trajectories in most cases while only performing more complex obstacle avoidance calculations when direct paths are blocked, thus maintaining safety while reducing average processing time
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary evaluation of direct trajectories before considering more complex vertex bypass trajectories. By checking whether direct paths are available first, the system prepares and evaluates the simplest viable option upfront, avoiding unnecessary computation of complex avoidance paths when they are not needed, thereby reducing processing time while ensuring safety
2Reliability
If comprehensive obstacle avoidance is implemented, then flight safety is improved, but computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial obstacle avoidance by evaluating vertex bypass trajectories only for polygons that block direct flight paths. Rather than computing all possible avoidance routes for all obstacles regardless of relevance, the system performs avoidance calculations only when and where necessary, reducing computational resource requirements while maintaining adequate flight safety
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides obstacle avoidance computation into separate evaluation stages: first checking direct trajectories, then evaluating vertex bypasses only for blocking obstacles. This segmentation of computational tasks allows the system to allocate resources efficiently, performing comprehensive safety checks only when required rather than continuously, thus reducing overall computational complexity
Data Source
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AI summary
To guide an aircraft from its initial position to its destination, an automatic trajectory generation system: obtains polygons representing potential obstacles the aircraft might encounter; and searches for a flyable lateral trajectory by performing detours around polygons at their vertices, while adhering to a pre-established vertical trajectory profile. The lateral trajectory is determined by identifying the polygons that must be considered for the detours, and by progressively identifying polygons that obstruct the progress of the flyable lateral trajectory. This reduces the number of polygons required to find the flyable lateral trajectory.