River-Corridor Flight Path Planning for Safer Aircraft Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aircraft flight support systems lack the ability to efficiently determine and optimize flight paths over rivers for safe and efficient navigation, particularly in terms of safety and mission efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A flight support system that includes storage and an information processing device to determine whether an aircraft should fly over a specific river based on position information, using wireless communication with water level gauges and other aircraft to assess safety parameters like water levels and wind conditions, and automatically set flight paths to optimize safety and efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If aircraft use traditional land-based flight paths, then navigation infrastructure is well-established, but safety is reduced due to proximity to populated areas and terrain obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions flight paths from ground-based two-dimensional navigation to three-dimensional aerial navigation over rivers. By utilizing the vertical dimension and river corridors above land, aircraft can bypass terrain obstacles and populated areas while maintaining established river navigation infrastructure for positioning support.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces river space as an intermediary medium for flight paths. Rivers serve as natural corridors that separate aircraft from populated areas and obstacles on land, providing a safe intermediate zone for aircraft navigation without requiring complete abandonment of traditional navigation systems.
2Reliability
If aircraft fly over rivers to improve safety, then separation from land obstacles is achieved, but ability to respond to emergencies is reduced due to limited landing options
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the aircraft's operational capabilities dynamic by enabling on-water landing and takeoff functions. Aircraft can transition between flight mode and water landing mode as needed, allowing them to adapt to emergency situations by landing on river surfaces when land landing is unavailable, thus maintaining versatility while flying over rivers.
3Ease of manufacture
If more flight paths are created over rivers, then infrastructure costs are reduced, but environmental impact on water levels and ecosystems increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the need for constructing new physical flight path infrastructure with utilization of existing river corridors. Instead of building new roads or airfields, the system uses natural river geometries combined with wireless positioning technology (water level gauges, GPS) to define and navigate flight paths, substituting mechanical infrastructure with information-based navigation.
4Productivity
If automated flight path determination is implemented, then navigation efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases due to multiple sensors and processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes existing infrastructure multi-functional by enabling water level gauges to serve dual purposes: their traditional water level monitoring function and new aircraft positioning function. This universality reduces the need for separate dedicated aircraft navigation infrastructure, thereby improving navigation efficiency without proportionally increasing system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables aircraft to autonomously determine their own flight paths using onboard processors that integrate data from multiple sources (GPS, water level gauge positions, river geometry databases). The aircraft's information processing device automatically calculates optimal flight paths without requiring constant external control input, allowing efficient automated navigation while distributing processing responsibilities.
Data Source
AI summary
According to one implementation, a flight support system of an aircraft includes storage and an information processing device. The storage stores position information on at least one river above which a space is an option for a flight path of the at least one aircraft. The information processing device automatically determines at least whether the flight path of the at least one aircraft should be over a specific river included in the at least one river in order to fly the at least one aircraft to a destination, based on the position information stored in the storage.