Traffic Prioritization Zone for Aircraft Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In busy airport environments, the cluttered traffic display makes it difficult for pilots to detect preceding aircraft during the Visual Separation Approach, as the display range is often reduced to view the airport map clearly, causing some traffic to be hidden from view.
Innovation Solution
A traffic prioritization system that generates a prioritization zone based on user input, including range and vertical speed data, to identify preceding aircraft and display them by priority, while indicating air traffic outside the zone in a received sequence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If the display range is reduced to view the airport map clearly, then the airport map visibility is improved, but the detection of preceding aircraft is worsened as traffic may go out of the display area
Solution Approach 1:
The traffic display is segmented into multiple priority levels, with high-priority traffic (potential preceding aircraft) displayed prominently regardless of display range. This allows the airport map to be viewed clearly at reduced range while prioritized traffic remains visible through selective display and annotation techniques.
2Quantity of substance
If the traffic display includes all surrounding air traffic, then the completeness of traffic information is improved, but the cluttered display makes detection of preceding aircraft more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Different display qualities are applied to different traffic based on their priority. High-priority traffic (potential preceding aircraft) receives enhanced display treatment including prominent positioning, distinctive symbols, and priority indicators, while lower-priority traffic is displayed with reduced prominence. This maintains information completeness while reducing visual clutter through differential presentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and separates high-priority traffic information from the overall traffic display. Potential preceding aircraft are identified and extracted for special presentation, removing them from the general cluttered traffic display and presenting them in a dedicated, easily detectable format.
3Device complexity
If the traffic display area is limited, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to detect preceding aircraft is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds informational dimensions rather than spatial dimensions. Priority information, vertical speed data, and aircraft identity are displayed through additional data layers and annotations on existing traffic symbols, rather than expanding the physical display area. This maintains limited display real estate while enhancing detection capability through information enrichment.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for traffic prioritization of surrounding air traffic for display onboard an aircraft. The apparatus includes a traffic data source configured to supply surrounding traffic data. The apparatus includes a traffic control module coupled to receive user selection data from the user input device and the surrounding traffic data. The traffic control module can be configured to determine a prioritization zone for prioritizing the surrounding air traffic to identify air traffic preceding the aircraft based on the user selection data, the range and the vertical speed of the surrounding air traffic, and set first traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic within the prioritization zone listed by priority and second traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic outside of the prioritization zone listed in received sequence. The apparatus displays a graphical user interface that includes the first traffic and the second traffic data.