Ground-Based Incursion Alert System for Flight Path Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current flight advisory systems are limited by costly on-board systems with limited range, event-based uplinked messages that do not predict upcoming issues, and ground-based systems that can only monitor a few aircraft at a time, making them labor-intensive and not scalable.
Innovation Solution
An automated module that evaluates preconfigured pilot preferences against data sets including weather, airspace, and flight restrictions, generates incursion alerts, and transmits them to aircraft during flight, allowing for real-time monitoring of multiple aircraft and predictive alerts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If ground based systems manually monitor aircraft, then pilots receive personalized advisory information, but the system is labor intensive and can only monitor a limited number of aircraft
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a ground-based copy of the pilot's decision-making logic through pre-configured preference profiles. These profiles capture pilot preferences for various advisory scenarios (weather, airspace, routing) and automatically apply them to monitor multiple aircraft simultaneously, eliminating the need for manual monitoring while preserving personalized advisory capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables aircraft to self-configure their monitoring parameters through pre-flight preference setup. During flight, the automated system independently evaluates flight path data against these preferences and generates alerts without human intervention, allowing the system to scale to numerous aircraft without additional labor
2Reliability
If on-board systems are installed in aircraft, then pilots receive real-time information, but the systems are costly and have limited range
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a ground-based intermediary system that acts as a central processing hub. Instead of requiring expensive on-board processing in each aircraft, the ground system receives flight path data from multiple aircraft, evaluates it against weather and airspace data, and sends back only relevant alert messages. This mediator approach provides real-time information delivery while significantly reducing the complexity and cost of on-board systems
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts the complex evaluation and decision-making functions from the aircraft and concentrates them on the ground. By removing the need for sophisticated on-board processing equipment and transferring the computational burden to ground-based infrastructure, the system achieves real-time monitoring capabilities without the high costs and limited ranges associated with on-board systems
3Ease of operation
If event based uplinked messages are used, then pilots receive information when requested, but the system cannot predict upcoming issues along the flight path
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary evaluation of potential incursions by continuously monitoring flight path data against weather, airspace, and restriction databases before the aircraft actually encounters the issue. By proactively identifying upcoming problems and sending alert messages in advance, the system transforms reactive event-based information into predictive advisory capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a continuous feedback loop where flight path data from aircraft is constantly fed back to the ground system, which evaluates it against current weather and airspace conditions. This real-time feedback enables the system to detect developing situations and send predictive alerts before pilots would naturally request information, maintaining ease of operation while adding predictive capability
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for transmitting incursion alerts to a plurality of in-flight aircraft in accordance with preconfigured pilot preferences. The apparatus comprises a data store module containing data sets against which the pilot preferences are evaluated during flight, including weather, airspace and flight restrictions, ground delay programs, and air traffic information. The apparatus further includes a flight path module containing route and position information for each aircraft. An incursion alert processing module evaluates the flight path, data store, and pilot preferences and generates incursion alerts which are transmitted to each aircraft during flight, either directly or via ground based dispatchers or flight operations personnel.