Emergency Autoland Routing Around Terrain and Obstacles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrated avionics systems lack the capability to land an aircraft without pilot intervention, even in emergency situations, despite providing advanced navigation and control functionalities.
Innovation Solution
An autoland system that includes a processor and memory to identify potential destinations, calculate merits, select a destination, create a route accounting for terrain and obstacle characteristics, and autonomously navigate the aircraft to land without pilot intervention, utilizing integrated avionics components like primary flight displays, multifunction displays, and avionics control and display units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If integrated avionics systems provide advanced navigation and control functionalities, then the system capability is improved, but the system cannot land without pilot intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The avionics system performs self-service by automatically selecting destinations, calculating routes, and controlling aircraft systems without pilot intervention during emergency situations. The system uses onboard sensors, terrain databases, and automated decision-making algorithms to execute the complete landing sequence independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-calculating multiple potential destination options with associated merits before emergency occurs. During emergency, the system can immediately execute pre-planned routes and procedures, reducing response time and enabling autonomous operation without requiring real-time pilot decisions.
2Productivity
If the system autonomously selects destinations and creates routes, then the productivity is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous landing system is segmented into distinct functional modules: destination selection module, route calculation module, terrain analysis module, and automated control module. Each module handles specific tasks independently, allowing the complex overall function to be managed through modular components that can be developed, tested, and maintained separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The avionics system integrates multiple functions into a single autonomous landing system that can perform destination selection, navigation, terrain avoidance, and aircraft control. This multi-functionality consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems into one integrated solution, managing complexity through functional integration.
3Reliability
If the system adjusts final approach segment for terrain and obstacles, then the safety is improved, but the calculation time increases
Solution Approach 1:
Terrain and obstacle data are pre-loaded into onboard databases before flight. During the final approach, the system queries pre-processed terrain information rather than performing real-time calculations, significantly reducing computation time while maintaining safety. The system has already evaluated potential conflict areas before the emergency situation arises.
Solution Approach 2:
The system skips detailed analysis of areas already known to be clear based on pre-flight terrain evaluation. Focused computational resources are directed only at critical segments of the approach path where terrain or obstacles may pose risks, allowing rapid adjustment of the final approach segment without comprehensive recalculation of the entire flight path.
Data Source
AI summary
Autoland systems and processes for landing an aircraft without pilot intervention are described. In implementations, the autoland system includes a memory operable to store one or more modules and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The processor is operable to execute the one or more modules to identify a plurality of potential destinations for an aircraft; calculate a merit for each potential destination identified; select a destination based upon the merit; and create a route from a current position of the aircraft to an approach fix associated with the destination that accounts for the terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s). The processor can also cause the aircraft to traverse the route, determine a final approach segment associated with the route; identify terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s) associated with the final approach segment; and determine an adjusted final approach segment accounting for the terrain characteristic(s) and/or obstacle characteristic(s).