Aircraft Exit Trajectory Calculation for Weather Alert Avoidance

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Solution Overview

Problem

Aircrafts in flight face challenges in automatically determining a safe trajectory to navigate through weather alert situations while minimizing exposure to meteorological risks and maintaining a safe distance from obstacles like terrain and military zones, especially with limited computing resources.

Innovation Solution

An automatic trajectory generation system that identifies candidate exit paths from weather alert situations by defining tangential circles around the aircraft, determining candidate safety positions, and selecting the most promising trajectory to minimize exposure time to meteorological obstacles, while also considering terrain and military zones.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If automatic trajectory generation considers all obstacles (terrain, weather, military zones) and operational constraints, then flight safety is improved, but computing resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveflight safetyVSAvoidcomputing resource consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the trajectory generation process into distinct phases: weather alert exit trajectory calculation and general obstacle avoidance trajectory calculation. Each phase handles specific constraints separately, allowing efficient computation by focusing on one set of constraints at a time rather than all constraints simultaneously.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts the weather alert situation as a separate, prioritized sub-problem from the general trajectory generation task. By identifying and isolating weather polygons and creating dedicated exit trajectories, the system handles the most time-critical constraint separately, reducing the computational burden on the overall system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

2Reliability

If the system calculates multiple candidate trajectories with safety margins, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetrajectory safetyVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-defining tangential circles at the aircraft's current position and pre-identifying candidate outer sides of weather polygons before full trajectory optimization. This preliminary structuring of the search space reduces the complexity of subsequent calculations while ensuring safety constraints are met.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts the trajectory generation process based on the aircraft's operational state (e.g., minimum turn radius, speed constraints). By making the trajectory candidates adaptive to current aircraft capabilities rather than using fixed complex algorithms, the system maintains reliability while reducing computational complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP4432266A1Method and system for calculating the output trajectory of an aircraft from a meteo warning situation
Publication Date: 2024.09.18 AIRBUS (SAS)
  • EP4432266A1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP4432266A1 patent drawingFigure 3
  • EP4432266A1 patent drawingFigure 4A~4E

AI summary

In an automatic trajectory generation method for exiting an aircraft in flight from a weather alert situation, a system: obtains polygons representative of meteorological obstacles; defines (701) two circles centered to the right and left of the current flight position, with a minimum radius in accordance with the aircraft's operational state; identify (702), for each polygon, candidate outside sides for an aircraft exit; define (703) lines perpendicular to the candidate outside sides and tangent to one and/or the other of the circles; determine (704), for each line, a candidate safe position, which is located at a margin distance outside any polygon; construct (705) candidate exit trajectories between the current flight position and each candidate safe position; and select (709) the candidate trajectory minimizing the aircraft's exposure time in any meteorological obstacle.