System and method to determine engine thrust of a taxiing aircraft
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsRalf Rene Cabos, Spyridon Sakkas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computing device to determine engine thrust of an aircraft during taxiing. The computing device includes memory circuitry configured to store computer-readable program code. Processing circuitry is configured to execute the computer-readable program code to cause the computing device to: identify an aircraft on an airport surface; calculate an acceleration of the aircraft during the taxiing of the aircraft; compare the acceleration with predetermined data from similar aircraft; and based on the comparison, determine an engine thrust for the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing.
Claims20
A method of determining engine thrust of an aircraft during taxiing, the aircraft comprising a number of engines, the method comprising:
- identifying an aircraft on an airport surface;
- calculating an acceleration of the aircraft during the taxiing of the aircraft;
- comparing the acceleration of the aircraft to acceleration data of other aircraft with an equal number of engines, the acceleration data comprising clusters of data points with a number of clusters being the same as the number of engines and with each of the clusters of data points corresponding to a different engine thrust;
- determining that the acceleration of the aircraft is aligned within one of the cluster of data points;
- determining an engine thrust for the aircraft based on the cluster in which the acceleration coincides.
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable program code instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:
- identify an aircraft on an airport surface and determine a number of engines on the aircraft;
- calculate an acceleration of the aircraft during the taxiing of the aircraft;
- compare the acceleration with predetermined data from similar aircraft with an equal number of engines, the data comprising clusters of data points with each of the clusters corresponding to a different engine thrust;
- determine that the acceleration of the aircraft corresponds to one of the clusters of data points;
- and
- based on the comparison, determine the engine thrust for the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing.
A computing device for determining engine thrust of an aircraft during taxiing, the computing device comprising:
- memory circuitry configured to store computer-readable program code;
- and
- processing circuitry configured to execute the computer-readable program code to cause the computing device to:
- identify the aircraft by model and a number of engines of the aircraft;
- identify a direction of travel of the aircraft;
- determine an acceleration of the aircraft over a time period during taxiing of the aircraft;
- compare the acceleration and the time period with predetermined data of other aircraft of the same model, the same direction of travel, and with the same number of engines and with the other aircraft having an acceleration over a time period during taxiing;
- determine that the acceleration and time period is within a cluster of data points in the predetermined data with the cluster corresponding to an engine thrust for the aircraft;
- and
- determine that the aircraft is taxiing with a same number of engines that are operating at same thrust levels as other aircraft from the corresponding cluster.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.