Aircraft HUD Hold Line Projection via Conformal Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current head-up display systems in aircraft lack integration of surface guidance information, such as taxiing, takeoff, and landing rollout data, requiring pilots to switch between displays for conformal and non-conformal views, which can be obscured by environmental conditions like snow or fog.
Innovation Solution
A head-up display system that projects airport runway and taxiway symbols conformally onto a combiner, using geolocated data from a database to determine the aircraft's location and map hold lines and signs, allowing pilots to view essential information without looking away from the outside environment, including enhanced text readability and virtual representation of signs and hold lines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If pilots use traditional separate displays for conformal and non-conformal views, then each display can show its specific information, but pilots must switch between displays which reduces situational awareness and increases workload
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines conformal and non-conformal surface guidance information into a single integrated HUD display. The system overlays both types of information simultaneously on the same display medium, eliminating the need for pilots to switch between separate displays and maintaining continuous situational awareness of both view types.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent superimposes non-conformal surface guidance information in the vertical dimension above the conformal view on the HUD display. This dimensional layering allows both conformal and non-conformal information to be displayed simultaneously without interfering with each other, resolving the contradiction by adding a spatial dimension to the display architecture.
2Reliability
If pilots rely on external visual cues for navigation, then they can maintain situational awareness, but adverse environmental conditions like snow or fog obscure these cues
Solution Approach 1:
The HUD display acts as an intermediary between the pilot and the external environment. By projecting virtual surface guidance information directly onto the combiner in the pilot's field of view, the system provides reliable navigation cues that are not affected by adverse environmental conditions such as snow, fog, or darkness, while maintaining the pilot's natural head-up orientation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual copies of surface guidance information (hold lines, taxiways, runways) and displays them on the HUD combiner. These copied representations provide reliable navigation references that are independent of actual external visual conditions, ensuring navigation reliability regardless of environmental obstructions.
3Measurement precision
If the HUD displays detailed surface guidance information, then navigation accuracy improves, but the display complexity and information processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments surface guidance information into distinct types (conformal and non-conformal) and processes them through separate functional modules. The conformal information processing handles geometric transformations, while the non-conformal module handles overhead view projections. This segmentation allows detailed information to be displayed with high navigation accuracy while managing system complexity through modular architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
A head-up display (HUD) is disclosed. The HUD is provided on board an aircraft. The HUD comprises a projector and a combiner. The combiner enables viewing of the world outside of the combiner and also allows viewing of information provided from the projector. A computer is coupled to the projector and provides airport runway and taxiway symbols conformally mapped onto the combiner. Also provided on the combiner is a mapping of hold lines onto the combiner.