Contingency Landing Site Map Generation for Aircraft
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircrafts face challenges in determining suitable contingency landing sites during emergency situations, especially when critical systems fail, as they lack the ability to evaluate landing sites for risks to people, property, and the aircraft itself in real-time.
Innovation Solution
A computer system that decomposes data from various maps into risk maps for people presence, property damage, and aircraft damage, generating a contingency landing site map to identify suitable landing locations by assessing terrain smoothness, slope, and land cover, and performs landing simulations to evaluate risks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the aircraft performs comprehensive risk assessment for contingency landing sites, then the safety and effectiveness of emergency landings is improved, but the complexity of the system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the comprehensive risk assessment into multiple specialized risk maps, each evaluating a specific risk dimension (people presence, property damage, aircraft damage). This modular approach allows the system to maintain high reliability through comprehensive assessment while managing complexity by dividing the evaluation into separate, specialized components that can be processed independently and then integrated.
2Measurement precision
If the aircraft evaluates multiple risk factors for landing sites, then the quality of landing site selection is improved, but the time required for assessment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-generates multiple specialized risk maps covering different risk dimensions before the emergency occurs. These risk maps are created in advance using available spatial data and can be quickly queried and integrated during a contingency situation. This preliminary preparation allows the system to provide comprehensive, multi-factor risk assessment with high precision while minimizing the time required during actual emergency landings.
3Measurement precision
If the system processes detailed map data for risk assessment, then the accuracy of risk identification is improved, but the computational resources required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides detailed map data processing into separate risk map generation modules, each handling specific types of spatial data and risk calculations. This segmentation allows the system to process different data types in parallel using optimized algorithms for each risk dimension, improving risk identification accuracy while distributing computational energy consumption across multiple specialized processes rather than requiring one monolithic high-power processor.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer system determines contingency landing sites for an aircraft, piloted or autonomous. The computer system decomposes data from various types of maps into multiple separate risk maps, which can include: one for the risk to people being present on the ground at the landing site; one for the risk of damage to property on the ground at the landing site; one for the risk of damage to the aircraft; and/or one for the risk to people on-board the aircraft. From these maps, the computer system generates a contingency landing site map that the aircraft can use to determine an appropriate landing site in the case of an emergency. The computer system can also perform landing simulations to determine the various risks.