Predicted Position and Heading Indicators for Air Traffic Conflict Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current navigation displays in aircraft do not provide visual indications of the predicted future position of the aircraft, limiting the flight crew's ability to anticipate and proactively avoid air traffic conflicts, as they rely on reactive monitoring of current situations without sufficient situational awareness.
Innovation Solution
A visual/graphical air traffic display tool that calculates and displays the predicted future position and heading of the aircraft based on current parameters, allowing for proactive conflict avoidance by indicating potential future conflicts through color changes in symbols on the traffic display unit.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If current navigation displays only show real-time position without predicted future position, then the display complexity is reduced, but the situational awareness and conflict anticipation capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates and displays the predicted future position of ownship before the aircraft actually reaches that position. This preliminary action allows flight crews to anticipate future locations and potential conflicts in advance, improving situational awareness without requiring complex real-time processing during critical moments.
Solution Approach 2:
A predicted future position indicator is introduced as an intermediary element between the current position symbol and the actual future position. This intermediary visual element bridges the gap between present and future states, providing intuitive situational awareness while maintaining display simplicity through standardized symbolic representation.
2Reliability
If the system calculates predicted future position based on current flight parameters, then the conflict anticipation capability is improved, but the calculation complexity and processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs conflict detection based on a limited set of critical flight parameters (position, velocity, heading) rather than analyzing all possible flight variables. This partial action approach provides sufficient reliability for conflict anticipation while avoiding the excessive complexity of comprehensive flight parameter analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms complex flight dynamics into simplified predictive parameters by calculating future position based on current position, velocity, and heading. This parameter transformation reduces calculation complexity while maintaining reliable conflict detection capability through essential motion parameters.
3Productivity
If the display shows only current traffic positions without predicted future position, then the information processing load is reduced, but the proactive conflict avoidance capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The predicted future position indicator provides preliminary information about where ownship will be, enabling flight crews to take proactive conflict avoidance actions before conflicts occur. This preliminary position information enhances conflict avoidance efficiency by allowing advance planning and intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides visual feedback by displaying the predicted future position relative to other aircraft positions. This feedback mechanism enables flight crews to assess potential conflicts and adjust flight parameters proactively, improving conflict avoidance efficiency through continuous predictive information.
Data Source
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AI summary
A visual/graphical air traffic display tool to aid flight crews in determining future heading/track and position of ownship based on current climb rate, bank angle and groundspeed under current meteorological conditions. The tool displays symbols which indicate the predicted future position and heading/track of ownship on a traffic display unit. The tool is also capable of using ownship's predicted position and information received from surrounding traffic to identify a future conflict at ownship's predicted position and then display a future conflict warning on the traffic display unit. In one embodiment, the future conflict warning takes the form of a change in the coloration of the ownship position and heading/track indicator being displayed.