Boolean Mathematics Approach to Air Traffic Management
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorJohn William Glatfelter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the present disclosure reduce the possibility of a collision between multiple aircraft, and provide early detection and warning capabilities to pilots and ground personnel of a potentially dangerous situation. To accomplish this function, nested 3D volumes of protected space are generated as geometric solids for each of a plurality of aircraft and monitored. Upon detecting that the volumes of protected space associated with multiple aircraft intersect each other, alarm notifications are generated to warn appropriate personnel that the aircraft could come within an unsafe distance of each other.
Claims20
A method of managing air traffic, the method comprising:
- for each aircraft of a plurality of aircraft, generating a corresponding 3-dimensional (3D) volume of protected space that surrounds and moves with the aircraft, wherein generating the 3D volume of protected space comprises generating two or more nested volumes of protected space that surround and move with the aircraft;
- dynamically increasing or decreasing a volume of one or more of the nested volumes of protected space based on a phase of flight of the aircraft;
- detecting an intersection between the volume of protected space surrounding a first aircraft and the volume of protected space surrounding a second aircraft;
- and
- generating an alarm notification responsive to detecting the intersection.
A computing device comprising:
- interface circuitry configured to send and receive data;
- and
- processing circuitry operatively coupled to the interface circuitry and configured to:
- generate, for each aircraft of a plurality of aircraft, a corresponding 3-dimensional (3D) volume of protected space that surrounds and moves with the aircraft, wherein to generate the 3D volume of protected space, the processing circuitry is configured to generate two or more nested volumes of protected space that surround and move with the aircraft;
- dynamically increase or decrease a volume of one or more of the nested volumes based on a phase of flight of the aircraft;
- detect an intersection between the volume of protected space surrounding a first aircraft and the volume of protected space surrounding a second aircraft;
- and
- generate an alarm notification responsive to detecting the intersection.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program product for controlling a programmable computing device, the computer program product comprising software instructions that, when executed on processing circuitry of the programmable computing device, cause the processing circuitry to:
- generate, for each aircraft of a plurality of aircraft, a corresponding 3-dimensional (3D) volume of protected space that surrounds and moves with the aircraft, wherein to generate the 3D volume of protected space, the processing circuitry is configured to generate two or more nested volumes of protected space that surround and move with the aircraft;
- dynamically increase or decrease a volume of one or more of the nested volumes based on a phase of flight of the aircraft;
- detect an intersection between the volume of protected space surrounding a first aircraft and the volume of protected space surrounding a second aircraft;
- and
- generate an alarm notification responsive to detecting the intersection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.