Method and system for assisting the navigation of an aircraft, and associated aircraft
AssigneeAirbus Helicopters
InventorsRemi GIRARD, Nicolas BELANGER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and a system for assisting the navigation of an aircraft, the system comprising: a graph generator for generating a graph comprising nodes and arcs corresponding to a set of preferred waypoints and routes for the aircraft; a memory installed on board the aircraft for storing the graph; a planning member configured to plan a mission and to enter at least one destination position for the mission; an identification means configured to identify a current position of the aircraft in the graph; and a computer configured to calculate a flight path by means of the graph in order to move from the current position of the aircraft to the destination position.
Claims13
A method for assisting the navigation of an aircraft, the method including the following steps:
- generating a graph comprising nodes and arcs corresponding to a set of preferred waypoints and routes for the aircraft, each arc connecting two nodes to each other and each node being connected to at least one other node;
- storing the graph in a memory installed on board the aircraft;
- planning a mission to reach a destination position;
- identifying a current position of the aircraft in the graph, the step of identifying the current position being carried out by means of images captured in flight during the mission of the aircraft;
- and
- calculating a flight path by means of the graph in order to move from the current position of the aircraft to the destination position,
- wherein each arc of the graph is assigned an image usability index enabling to quantify a probability of satisfying the step of identifying the current position, the step (24) of identifying the current position being carried out at any instant on one of the arcs of the graph arranged between two consecutive nodes and wherein the calculation of a flight path is carried out depending on the image usability indices of the arcs.
A system for assisting the navigation of an aircraft, the system including:
- a graph generator for generating a graph comprising nodes and arcs corresponding to a set of preferred waypoints and routes for the aircraft, each arc connecting two nodes to each other and each node being connected to at least one other node;
- a memory installed on board the aircraft for storing the graph;
- a planning member configured to plan a mission and to enter at least one destination position for the mission;
- an identification means configured to identify a current position of the aircraft in the graph, the means for identifying the current position of the aircraft using at least images captured in flight during the mission of the aircraft;
- and
- a computer configured to calculate a flight path by means of the graph in order to move from the current position of the aircraft to the destination position,
- wherein the graph generator is configured to assign, to each arc of the graph, an image usability index enabling to quantify, for the identification means, a probability of identifying the current position of the aircraft, the identification means identifying, at any instant, the current position of the aircraft on one of the arcs of the graph arranged between two consecutive nodes and wherein the computer calculates the flight path depending on the image usability indices of the arcs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.