Aircraft Landing Trajectory Planning With STARI Holding Loops
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems require significant computing resources and time to automatically determine a safe and flyable trajectory for an aircraft to land on a georeferenced runway, especially when considering terrain relief, meteorological obstacles, and military no-fly zones, which is inefficient and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
An automatic trajectory generation method that breaks down the computation into obtaining a STARI procedure and computing a lateral trajectory, using a holding loop pattern to dissipate energy, thereby reducing complexity and computing time, and includes electronic circuitry to implement these steps on board the aircraft.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automatic trajectory determination is performed considering terrain relief, meteorological obstacles, and military no-fly zones, then safety and flyability are improved, but computing time and resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The trajectory determination process is divided into two independent segments: (1) obtaining a STARI procedure that provides a flyable final approach trajectory with energy dissipation capabilities, and (2) computing a lateral trajectory from current position to the STARI entry point while avoiding obstacles. This segmentation reduces the overall computational complexity and time required while maintaining safety requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The STARI procedure is obtained in advance or from pre-stored databases before the actual landing maneuver. This preliminary action provides a validated final approach trajectory that already satisfies safety and flyability constraints, eliminating the need to compute these constraints during the critical real-time landing phase.
2Reliability
If a complete trajectory is computed in real time avoiding all obstacles, then trajectory flyability is ensured, but device complexity and computing resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The computing system is divided into two functional parts: a STARI procedure manager that handles final approach trajectory validation, and a lateral trajectory computer that computes obstacle-avoiding paths. Each part has reduced computational requirements compared to a monolithic system, lowering overall device complexity while ensuring flyability.
Solution Approach 2:
The STARI procedure acts as an intermediary between the lateral trajectory computation and the final approach. It provides a pre-validated intermediate target (entry point) that simplifies the lateral path computation while guaranteeing that the final approach segment meets all safety and performance requirements.
3Reliability
If energy dissipation maneuvers are included in the trajectory, then landing safety is improved, but trajectory complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Energy dissipation is achieved through periodic holding loop patterns that can be executed at standardized intervals before the final approach. These periodic maneuvers follow predetermined geometric patterns, reducing the complexity of real-time trajectory computation while ensuring adequate energy dissipation for safe landing.
Solution Approach 2:
The holding loop patterns use standardized geometric parameters (radius, altitude, speed) that are predetermined based on aircraft performance characteristics. By changing these parameters according to pre-established criteria rather than computing complex variable trajectories, the system maintains landing safety while reducing computational and operational complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
To bring an aircraft in flight to a runway, an automatic trajectory generation system obtains a procedure, called STARI procedure, which provides a final trajectory flyable by the aircraft to land on the runway, such that from the entry point of the final trajectory or from any point above it, a holding loop pattern of a predefined shape is flyable in order to dissipate energy if necessary. The automatic trajectory generation system then computes a lateral trajectory, avoiding any terrain relief, meteorological obstacles and military zones, between the current position of the aircraft and the entry point or a point above it, based on performance adapted to an operational state of the aircraft. An overall trajectory is thus obtained, by linking the computed lateral trajectory and the final trajectory of the STARI procedure, including iterations of the holding loop pattern if necessary.