Predicted Flight Path Depiction in Head-Up Displays
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current head-up displays and synthetic vision systems only depict the aircraft's trajectory at the current time, failing to provide a predicted flight path over a period, which limits situational awareness and decision-making capabilities for pilots.
Innovation Solution
A head-up display and synthetic vision system that includes a predicted flight path generation component, graphic generation component, and sensors to calculate and display a three-dimensional predicted flight path based on state parameters and flight dynamics equations, combining this information with a visual exterior view to project a graphical representation of the aircraft's trajectory over time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If current head-up displays and synthetic vision systems only depict the aircraft's trajectory at the current time, then the system complexity is reduced, but situational awareness and decision-making capabilities are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculation of the predicted flight path by integrating flight dynamics equations and aircraft state parameters to project future trajectory points before they occur. This allows the display to show anticipated position, velocity, and acceleration states in advance, giving pilots ahead-of-time information for decision-making without requiring complex real-time computation during critical moments
2Loss of information
If a predicted flight path over a period is displayed, then situational awareness is enhanced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from displaying only two-dimensional current position data to incorporating a time dimension by showing multiple predicted trajectory points extending into the future. This dimensional expansion provides pilots with temporal context about the aircraft's projected path while maintaining a coherent spatial representation that integrates seamlessly with existing head-up display formats
3Measurement precision
If three-dimensional transforms are used to generate graphical display, then the visual representation accuracy is improved, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The predicted flight path is segmented into discrete future time points (e.g., 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 6 seconds ahead) rather than computing continuous trajectory data. At each segmented time point, three-dimensional transforms are applied to calculate position, velocity, and acceleration independently, reducing overall computational load while maintaining visual accuracy through strategically selected key moments in the predicted path
Data Source
AI summary
A head-up display system includes an aircraft, a predicted flight path generation component that calculates a predicted flight path over a period of time, and a graphic generation component configured to generate a graphical display and project it onto a combiner configured to combine the graphical display with a visual exterior view. A synthetic vision system includes an aircraft, a predicted flight path generation component that receives one or more state parameters and calculates a predicted flight path over a period of time, and a synthetic terrain generation component configured to generate a synthetic view which is displayed on a display. The graphical display and/or the synthetic view includes a three-dimensional depiction of the predicted flight path over the period of time generated utilizing one or more three-dimensional transforms, one or more graphical images based on flight data, and a three-dimensional graphical depiction of a flight plan.