Touch-Enabled Sensor Calibration Interface for Aircraft Avionics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current avionics systems require cumbersome and non-intuitive processes for calibrating aircraft position by interacting with multiple sensor systems, lacking real-time visual feedback during sensor selection and requiring pilots to navigate between windows.
Innovation Solution
A touch-enabled system with a display unit that allows direct and intuitive selection of onboard sensors, using a processor to configure a user interface with symbols representing sensors, interpret touch inputs, and provide immediate visual feedback, thereby simplifying the calibration process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional window-based interface is used for sensor calibration, then system reliability is maintained through redundant sensor systems, but ease of operation deteriorates due to cumbersome navigation between windows and lack of intuitive sensor selection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the traditional multi-window navigation interface into a single graphical display showing sensor positions on a map. This dimensional change from sequential window-based interaction to spatial map-based interaction eliminates the need to navigate between windows while maintaining all calibration functions in one intuitive view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a visual copy of the aircraft's geographical position and sensor locations on a displayed map. This graphical representation allows pilots to see sensor positions relative to aircraft position without physically moving between windows, providing intuitive spatial understanding of sensor calibration status.
2Productivity
If multiple windows are used to display sensor information, then comprehensive sensor data can be presented, but loss of time increases due to back-and-forth navigation required for calibration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple window-based information displays into a single integrated graphical map view. All sensor positions, aircraft location, and calibration status are combined in one display, eliminating the time required to navigate between windows while presenting comprehensive sensor data simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-calculates and displays all sensor positions relative to aircraft position before calibration begins. This preliminary arrangement of all calibration information in one view eliminates the need for pilots to sequentially access different windows during the calibration process.
3Measurement precision
If textual readout of sensor positions is used, then precise sensor data can be displayed, but ease of operation worsens due to requirement for mental processing and translation to relative positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a visual copy of the actual geographical positions on a displayed map, showing aircraft position and sensor locations as graphical symbols. This visual representation eliminates the need for pilots to mentally process and translate textual latitude/longitude data into relative positions, while maintaining precise sensor position information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses different colors and visual symbols to represent different sensor types and their relative positions. This visual encoding allows pilots to quickly distinguish sensor positions and understand their spatial relationships without mentally processing numerical data, while preserving measurement precision through the map coordinates.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and systems for calibrating aircraft position by providing touch-enabled selection of onboard sensors on an aircraft. The method includes receiving sensor map location information for onboard sensors including N position computers, a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, an inertial reference system (IRS) sensor, and a radio navigation (NAV) sensor; receiving sensor data from the onboard sensors, and configuring a user interface layout for the touch display unit presenting the onboard sensors using symbols at respective locations. Embodiments depict the sensors with intuitive symbols and provide a terrain layout in the background. The method includes interpreting a touch input from the touch-enabled display unit to select a position computer and an onboard sensor, and to calibrate the selected position computer with the selected onboard sensor and update the user interface layoutto reflect the calibration, responsive to the touch input.