US 2014/0278037 A1Published application

Aircraft taxiing system

AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.

InventorsHARDIK CHOKSI, RAFEEK SAINUDEEN, Nagaraj Sham

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Abstract

An aircraft taxiing system is provided, comprising a flight control system, an electric taxi system having controls, a flight management system (FMS), at least one data input source coupled to the FMS, and a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS). The FMS is programmed with instructions to calculate guidance speed and heading commands, augment the guidance commands to avoid runway incursions, and transmit the guidance commands to the flight control system. The TCAS is programmed with instructions to receive Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data from ground traffic, generate collision avoidance alerts; and transmit the collision avoidance alerts to the flight control system. The flight control system is programmed with instructions to receive guidance commands from the FMS, receive the traffic collision avoidance alerts from the TCAS, and compute the steering commands, and transmit the commands to the electric taxi system to taxi the aircraft along a calculated taxi route.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An aircraft taxiing system, comprising:

a flight control system;
an electric taxi system having controls coupled to the flight control system;
a flight management system (FMS) coupled to the flight control system;
at least one data input source coupled to the FMS;
wherein the FMS is programmed with instructions that, when executed by a first processor:
receive runway advisories from a Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RASS);
receive taxi route data, aircraft position data, and an airport map data from the at least one data input source;
couple the electric taxi system with the flight control system;
in response to the taxi route data, calculate guidance speed and heading commands;
in response to the runway advisories, augment the guidance speed and heading commands to avoid runway incursions;
and
transmit the speed and heading guidance commands to the flight control system;
a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) coupled to the flight control system;
wherein the TCAS is programmed with instructions that, when executed by a second processor:
receive Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data from ground traffic including from taxiing aircraft and ground vehicles;
generate collision avoidance alerts in response to the ADS-B data;
and
transmit the collision avoidance alerts to the flight control system;
wherein the flight control system is programmed with instructions that, when executed by a third processor:
receive guidance commands from the FMS;
receive the traffic collision avoidance alerts from the TCAS;
and
in response to the guidance commands and collision avoidance alerts, compute the steering commands and transmit the commands to an electric taxi system if available in the aircraft or, if the electric taxi system is not available in the aircraft, to at least one of a nose wheel steering subsystem, an auto-throttle subsystem, and a brake control subsystem to taxi the aircraft along a calculated taxi route.

20 more elements

A flight management system (FMS) for an aircraft, comprising:

a first interface coupled to receive airport map data, runway advisories, air traffic control (ATC) cleared taxi route and aircraft position data from one or more of data sources;
a second interface for receiving crew input;
a third interface coupled to transmit guidance commands to a flight control system;
a fourth interface coupled to transmit a desired ground path to a display subsystem;
wherein the FMS is programmed with instructions for:
receiving ATC cleared taxi route, GPS/Inertial/Radio Navigation data for aircraft position, airport map data, and runway advisories from at least one data source;
computing the desired ground path along the taxi route in response to the ATC cleared taxi route;
calculating speed and heading guidance commands along the cleared taxi route making use of the aircraft position data;
augmenting the guidance commands for runway incursion avoidance in response to the runway advisories;
transmitting the guidance commands to the flight control system;
and
transmitting the cleared taxi route along with the current aircraft position to an aircraft display system.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.