US 7,117,089 B2 · Ground runway awareness and advisory system

Abstract

A Ground Runway Awareness and Advisory System (GRAAS) that provides supplemental position information and airport situational awareness alerts and advisories to pedestrians and vehicle operators during surface operations by providing timely aural, textual, graphic or pictographic alerts and advisory messages to pedestrians and vehicle operators in a significant number of different scenarios that have led to past runway and taxiway incursion occurrences. These messages are optionally supplemented by a situational awareness video display wherein one or more of the user's position, heading and ground speed are superimposed on a graphic display of airport features of interest. The GRAAS thereby satisfies one clear requirement in reducing VPDs: that the pedestrians or vehicle operators have a clear understanding of the airport layout, including designations of runways and taxiways, and their position relative to the airport layout and features, including aircraft, other ground vehicle traffic and pedestrians where position information is available.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for configuring a computer, the computer program product comprising:
(a) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to periodically receive one or more state parameters of interest;
(b) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to periodically access a searchable database of stored data describing airport features of interest and to retrieve therefrom one or more of the stored data;
(c) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to construct a zone of awareness relative to one or more of the retrieved airport features of interest;
(d) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to periodically compare the state parameters with one or more of the zones of awareness;
(e) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to periodically detect one or more alert conditions as a function of comparing the state parameters with one or more of the zones of awareness;
(f) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to generate an alert as a function of at least one of the detected alert conditions;
and
(g) computer-readable code configured to cause a computer to output an annunciation representative of the alert.

6 more elements

An electronic processing apparatus configured for providing supplemental position information and airport situational awareness alerts and advisories to pedestrians and vehicle operators during surface operations, the apparatus comprising:

a searchable database having stored data describing one or more fixed airport features of interest;
a processor electrically that is coupled to one or more sources of one or more state parameters of interest and is further electrically coupled to access the database and to retrieve therefrom one or more of the fixed airport features of interest data, the processor further comprising:
(a) means for periodically accessing the searchable database and for retrieving therefrom one or more of the fixed airport features of interest data from the stored data;
(b) means for constructing a zone of awareness relative to one or more of the retrieved fixed and mobile airport features of interest;
(c) means for comparing the state parameters with one or more of the zones of awareness;
(d) means for detecting one or more alert conditions as a function of comparing the state parameters with one or more of the zones of awareness;
(e) means for generating an alert as a function of a detected alert condition;
and
(f) means for outputting a signal representative of the alert.

6 more elements

An apparatus for providing supplemental position information and airport situational awareness alerts, the apparatus comprising:

a processor coupled for receiving input from a source of own sensor data and further coupled for receiving input from a database of fixed airport features of interest, the processor being configured for executing a plurality of machine instructions, the plurality of machine instructions comprising:
(i) instructions for causing the processor to receive one or more own sensor data from the source of own sensor data;
(ii) instructions for causing the processor to extract one or more own state parameters of interest from the received own sensor data;
(iii) instructions for causing the processor to access the database of fixed airport features to retrieve one or more of the airport features of interest;
(iv) instructions for causing the processor to determine one or more alert conditions as a function of one or more of the own state parameters of interest and one or more of the retrieved fixed airport features of interest, the instructions causing the processor to construct a zone of awareness relative to one or more of the retrieved airport features of interest, and further to compare one or more of the own state parameters of interest with each zone of awareness to determine the one or more alert conditions;
and
(v) instructions for causing the processor to output one or more signals representative of one or more of the alert conditions.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Ground runway awareness and advisory system

Life of this patent

Ground runway awareness and advisory system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24