Avionic Obstacle Database Update via Master-Slave GGS Architecture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aircraft obstacle databases are incomplete and heterogeneous, lacking user-defined obstacles, especially for helicopters flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions, and existing solutions do not allow for real-time enrichment or integration with certified avionic systems.
Innovation Solution
A software component called Geometric Georeferenced Shapes (GGS) enables pilots to create, modify, and share user obstacles directly within the aircraft, integrating them into avionic systems for 2D and 3D displays and terrain awareness systems, using a master-slave configuration for data management and memory segregation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If official obstacle databases are used, then obstacle data is provided by certified suppliers, but the databases are incomplete and heterogeneous, lacking user-defined obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines official obstacle databases with user-defined obstacles into a unified database system. The master avionic device integrates both sources of obstacle data, allowing the system to benefit from the reliability of certified supplier data while incorporating the adaptability of user-defined obstacles, thus resolving the contradiction between data completeness and user integration capability
Solution Approach 2:
The obstacle database is designed to serve multiple functions: it stores official obstacles from certified suppliers and simultaneously accommodates user-defined obstacles. This multi-functional database can be used by various avionic components (SVS, TAWS, HTAWS, digital charts) throughout the aircraft, providing both reliability through official data and adaptability through user contributions
2Adaptability or versatility
If user obstacles are created via Internet application and file transfer, then obstacles can be added to GPS peripherals, but obstacles are not integrated in certified avionic systems and cannot feed SVS or TAWS
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a master avionic device as an intermediary between the external world (pilots, ground stations) and the certified avionic systems (SVS, TAWS, HTAWS). This master device receives user-defined obstacles, processes them according to certification standards, and distributes them to slave devices and integrated systems, thereby enabling user obstacle creation while maintaining avionic system integration and reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The system is segmented into a master avionic device and multiple slave avionic devices. The master device handles the complex functions of receiving, validating, and managing user-defined obstacles, while slave devices receive and use the processed data. This segmentation allows the system to maintain certification compliance in the master device while enabling versatile user obstacle creation across the network
3Ease of operation
If obstacle database is updated manually during flight, then obstacles can be added and deleted, but no means to confirm updates to ground and no real-time sharing among devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the master avionic device sends update confirmations to ground stations and distributes updated obstacle data to all slave devices in real-time. When the master device receives a request to create, modify, or delete an obstacle, it processes the change and automatically communicates the update to all connected devices, ensuring information synchronization and preventing data loss
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous obstacle database updates across all avionic devices through the master-slave network architecture. Instead of discrete manual updates that may lose information, the master device continuously manages the database and ensures all slave devices have the current version, maintaining uninterrupted and synchronized obstacle information throughout the flight
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus and a method allowing a pilot or more generally a crew to enrich a database of user obstacles directly inside the aircraft, on the ground and even during flight. Generally, the apparatus is based on a new software component, which allows new services to be provided for the functional avionic components and for the human machine interfaces HMI of the avionics. This new software component is configured to allow: user obstacles to be created, changed, deleted at the request of components of HMIs of the avionics; user obstacles to be sent to clients of the services of this new software component, which are either other functional components of the avionics or other components of HMIs of the avionics; user obstacles to be recorded to a nonvolatile memory and restored from this nonvolatile memory.