Radio Altimeter Data Management for Terrain Differentiation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Radio-altimeters on aircraft struggle to differentiate between terrain and other objects when operating outside their 0-5000 feet range, leading to increased complexity in user systems and potential inappropriate behavior during flight phases above 5000 feet.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that monitor the trend of radio-altimetric data to determine if it corresponds to an aircraft approaching the ground, only transmitting data when a negative vertical speed or similar trend with auxiliary data is confirmed, thereby distinguishing between terrain and other objects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the radio-altimeter operates outside its operational range (above 5000 feet), then it can detect objects such as other aircraft, but it cannot differentiate between terrain and airborne objects leading to unreliable height data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a data management system as an intermediary between the radio-altimeter and user systems. This intermediary monitors the operational status of the radio-altimeter and filters transmitted data based on whether the aircraft is within its operational range or in approach mode, thereby ensuring reliability while maintaining detection capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary monitoring of radio-altimetric data trends before transmitting data to user systems. By checking whether the data trend corresponds to a valid approach to terrain in advance, the system prevents unreliable data from being transmitted, thus maintaining data reliability
2Reliability
If user systems implement coherence logics to handle radio-altimeter data outside operational range, then they can avoid inappropriate behavior, but the complexity of user systems increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complexity of coherence logic from user systems and relocates it to a dedicated data management system. The data management system handles all the complex monitoring and filtering logic, while user systems receive already-filtered reliable data, thus reducing their complexity while maintaining correct behavior
Solution Approach 2:
A data management system is introduced as an intermediary layer between the radio-altimeter and user systems. This intermediary absorbs the complexity of implementing coherence logics by centralizing the monitoring and filtering functions, allowing user systems to remain simple while ensuring correct behavior through the intermediary's intelligent data filtering
3Productivity
If the radio-altimeter transmits fixed values outside operational range, then it provides continuous data to user systems, but the data may correspond to any object within the radiation pattern including false targets
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously monitoring radio-altimetric data trends and using this information to control data transmission. The monitoring feedback determines whether the aircraft is in a valid approach mode, and only when this feedback is positive does the system transmit height data, thus maintaining measurement precision while ensuring data continuity through intelligent filtering
Solution Approach 2:
Before transmitting height data, the system performs preliminary verification by monitoring whether the radio-altimetric data trend corresponds to a valid approach to terrain. This preliminary action ensures that only accurate measurements are transmitted, maintaining measurement precision while providing continuous data during legitimate approach operations
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach simplifies user system logic, reduces spurious reflections, eliminates potential alarms, and improves the integrity and availability of height information by accurately differentiating between ground and airborne objects outside the radio-altimeter's operational range.
Implementation Method 1
The radio-altimeter is based on the measurement of the time that elapses between the emission of a frequency-modulated carrier and the reception of this carrier after reflection by the ground
Implementation Method 2
the reception of this carrier after reflection by the ground
Implementation Method 3
from the data generated by the radio-altimeter, determining a vertical speed; and considering that the aircraft is approaching the ground, only if the duly determined vertical speed is negative for the predetermined duration
Implementation Method 4
determining the vertical trend of values of an auxiliary datum; comparing this vertical trend to the trend of the data generated by the radio-altimeter for the same duration; and considering that the trend of the data corresponds to an aircraft approaching the ground, only if these two trends are similar
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for managing data from an aircraft radio-altimeter. The data management system includes a monitoring unit for checking, automatically and repetitively, when the radio-altimeter is outside of its operational range, from data generated by the radio-altimeter for a predetermined duration, whether the trend of the data corresponds to an aircraft approaching the ground, and a data transmission unit configured to automatically transmit the data generated by the radio-altimeter to a user system, only if the monitoring unit considers that the trend of the data corresponds to an aircraft approaching the ground.