Flight Management System Energy Constraint Visualization
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft pilots face inefficiencies and errors when manually assessing the impact of air traffic controller requests on energy management, leading to reduced situational awareness and potential safety issues due to the lack of visibility into the aircraft's performance limitations and the operational impacts of deviating from a planned trajectory.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that determine a recommended flight path by identifying intermediate and requested energy constraints, providing graphical indicia of the flight path segments and corresponding aircraft configurations to improve situational awareness, allowing pilots to visualize and understand the operational impacts of ATC requests, thereby facilitating better decision-making.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the pilot manually obtains information from instrument displays and mentally synthesizes information to assess the impact of ATC requests, then the pilot can evaluate operational impacts, but the process is time-consuming, inefficient, error-prone, and distracting
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary computational model that acts as a mediator between the ATC request and the pilot's decision-making process. The model automatically calculates energy state deviations, constraint violations, and operational impacts, eliminating the need for manual mental synthesis while improving accuracy and reducing time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manual information gathering and mental calculation with an automated electronic system. The flight management system automatically queries current energy state, compares it against constraints, and presents synthesized information through displays, substituting the pilot's manual cognitive processing with computational automation.
2Productivity
If the ATC requests a particular altitude constraint or speed constraint for managing air traffic, then air traffic management is improved, but the aircraft stability, passenger comfort, and operating costs are negatively impacted
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically evaluates the impact of ATC requests on aircraft stability by calculating current energy state deviations and projecting downstream effects. The flight management system continuously monitors whether constraint changes will compromise stability thresholds and provides real-time assessments to the pilot, enabling adaptive decision-making that maintains stability while satisfying ATC requirements.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the pilot deviates from the cost-efficient or optimal trajectory computed by the flight management system, then ATC traffic management requirements are met, but operating costs increase and energy efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms that continuously monitor the impact of ATC requests on energy consumption and operating costs. The flight management system calculates energy state deviations, projects cost implications, and presents this information to the pilot, enabling informed decisions about whether to accept ATC requests that may increase operational costs while maintaining necessary flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are provided for assisting operation of a vehicle to satisfy a downpath energy constraint when a current energy state has deviated from a reference energy state according to a planned route of travel. One method involves identifying an intermediate energy constraint at an intermediate point en route to the downpath waypoint, determining a first segment for satisfying the intermediate energy constraint at the intermediate point from the current energy state using a first configuration, determining a second segment from the intermediate point that satisfies the requested energy constraint at the downpath waypoint using a different configuration, and providing graphical indicia of the recommended path including the first and second segments. The graphical indicia includes a first graphical indication of the first configuration associated with the first segment and a second graphical indication of the second configuration associated with the second segment.