Collaborative Routing System for Unmanned Aircraft
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional air traffic management systems face challenges in efficiently managing multiple aircraft in crowded airspace, leading to difficulties in generating and revising flight plans that maintain safe air separation, particularly as the number of assets increases, requiring significant personnel and becoming increasingly complex.
Innovation Solution
A collaborative unmanned vehicle management system that includes a UAS control station, a collaborative routing system, and a communication network, which receives flight parameters, generates and presents flight plan options, and automatically adjusts plans based on feasibility and airspace conditions, enabling operators to select and modify flight paths to ensure safe operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If conventional asset control systems are used to manage multiple aircraft, then air traffic management can be performed, but the system complexity and personnel requirements increase significantly as the number of assets increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables aircraft to autonomously generate flight plans and perform collision avoidance maneuvers without continuous human intervention. The automated flight plan generation system allows aircraft to self-manage their navigation while maintaining safety separations, reducing the burden on air traffic controllers as the number of aircraft increases
Solution Approach 2:
Flight plans are generated in advance with pre-calculated collision avoidance strategies. The system performs preliminary analysis of potential conflicts and prepares multiple flight plan options before aircraft enter crowded airspace, enabling proactive rather than reactive traffic management
2Productivity
If a single air traffic manager controls numerous assets, then resource utilization is optimized, but the ability to propose and revise flight plans maintaining safe air separation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors aircraft positions and flight plan compliance, providing real-time feedback to both the automated system and air traffic managers. This feedback loop enables dynamic adjustment of flight plans to maintain safe separations, with the system automatically detecting and responding to potential safety violations
Solution Approach 2:
An automated flight plan generation system acts as an intermediary between air traffic managers and aircraft. This intermediary handles the complex calculations and real-time adjustments required to maintain safe separations, freeing air traffic managers from manual computation while preserving safety through algorithmic enforcement of separation standards
3Extent of automation
If automated flight plan generation is implemented, then system efficiency improves, but the need for operator collaboration and manual oversight may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system serves multiple functions through a unified automated platform: generating initial flight plans, monitoring compliance, detecting conflicts, and executing collision avoidance maneuvers. This multi-functional automation reduces the need for separate manual processes while maintaining operator ability to intervene when needed
Solution Approach 2:
Aircraft and operators can independently interact with the automated system to submit flight parameters and receive generated flight plans without requiring extensive manual coordination. The system self-adjusts to accommodate operator inputs and automatically presents revised options, making the interaction process streamlined and user-friendly
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
An unmanned vehicle management system includes an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) control station controlling one or more unmanned vehicles (UV), a collaborative routing system, and a communication network connecting the UAS and the collaborative routing system. The collaborative routing system being configured to receive flight parameters from an operator of the UAS control station and, based on the received flight parameters, automatically present the UAS control station with flight plan options to enable the operator to operate the UV in a defined airspace.