Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Traffic analysis or control of aircraft
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-31
2001-08-28
Nguyen, Tan (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Traffic analysis or control of aircraft
C701S017000, C244S11400R, C340S948000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282488
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to new and useful improvements to an airport guidance system, and in particular to an airport surface movement guidance and control system (SMGCS).
Airport surface movement guidance and control systems have been described, for example, in the document BRITE II from N.V. ADB S.A., Zaventem, Brussels AP.01.810e, Special Issue for the Inter Airport 1995 Exhibition, which is incorporated herein by reference.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
One object of the invention is to refine the system described there, which uses sensors arranged on the ground, to optimize the control of airport traffic, with the airport take-off and landing capacity being increased, and with maximum possible safety, in all types of weather. It is a further object to allow the tower personnel to be employed as flexibly as possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects are achieved by the teaching of the independent claims. Particularly advantageous refinements of the invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims. An SMGCS according to the invention uses at least one radar and a processing system to provide detection, integrated processing and graphical displays showing the positions and movements of aircraft, and possibly vehicles on the airside grounds (runways, taxiways, aprons, ramps, etc.) and in the airport airspace control zone (CTR) with particular regard to safety. The system is intended to discriminate between air movement and stationary objects in a parked position. The data are displayed in concentrated form, graphically or alphanumerically, on at least one controller's monitor. In this way, the system is able to provide operational management of surface movements both by planning them in advance and controlling them as they happen. This system covers all movements required to control surface traffic and provides an integrated control and guidance system for airports allowing traffic movements to be optimized with maximum possible safety, thus avoiding collisions on the ground and in the approach (landing) and departure (take-off) areas.
In flight, ground navigation aids protect aircraft against collisions. Non-visual and visual approach aids also help the aircraft to maintain the required glidepath during final approach. The riskiest part of an aircraft's journey, however, is on the ground, after touchdown. This is where most accidents happen. The surface movement guidance and control system (SMGCS) of the invention provides another major aid in this regard, so that monitoring, guidance and control can be carried out uninterruptedly. These types of systems are also called advanced (A)SMGCS, but have thus far not been feasible. The invention allows this to be done for the first time.
The invention also covers the detection and operational management of vehicle movements on the airside grounds, for example using transponder interrogations and squawks (squitters) or via ID tags and radios, which can also be used to transmit instructions. Ground traffic, which up to now has remained largely unmonitored, especially in the apron and ramp areas, has been a major source of accidents. Accordingly, the invention provides a major safety improvement. The system also allows airborne movements in the approach and departure areas to be covered by the monitoring and operational management components of the system. This optimizes surface movement planning. The early identification of discrepancies between the present traffic situation and the planned situation also improves safety, for example if a taxiway is still in use when it should be clear.
A major safety factor is the joint use of at least one primary radar and at least one secondary radar. The primary radar is used to locate objects on airside, while the secondary radar uses transponders for identification in the landing approach and take-off departure areas. According to the invention, identification on the ground is accomplished for incoming craft by means of a handover from the approach radar (secondary radar) during ongoing traffic. Conversely, responsibility is taken over from the docking guidance system in the case of outgoing craft, and identification is maintained by tracking targets through the primary radar. Safety and reliability are further improved by detecting squawks from transponders fitted to aircraft and to ground vehicles. Exact positions are determined, with simultaneous identification, by comparing signal arrival times (multilateration). Redundant and continuous identification of aircraft, and optionally also vehicles, in an airport movement area can thus be carried by the inventive system.
The system according to the invention also has a taxiing planning component which allows the controller to propose taxi routes, with the system automatically checking that there is no collision risk. The planning component and the collision risk check are carried out by permanently installed software that incorporates the appropriate safety features and algorithms. For instance, these algorithms ensure compliance with minimum separation regulations required under different weather conditions. The software algorithms additionally reflect intermediate aircraft stop positions, guaranteeing collision avoidance in the ramp area (apron) as well. Preferably, these software algorithms are based on aircraft flight plans. This is done because, at least at large airports, take-off and landing movements, as well as gate occupancy, are planned well in advance based on flight plans.
It is contemplated that the airport surface movement guidance and control system processes the data via an essentially conventional video subsystem and outputs the necessary displays on one monitor for the controller to see. Such radar video subsystems are marketed, for example, by HITT, one example thereof being described in “Jane's Airport Review, Sept. 1995, Volume 7, Issue 7, page 46”.
A display according to the invention and based on the BRITE II system, when produced on the radar video, exhibits a greater data concentration and more details than would be available by combining the conventional BRITE II system with the known HITT radar video. This is a major objective of the invention.
It is an advantage that the displays on the monitor, for example, fashioned as a real-time radar video, as a synthesized radar display and/or as a synthesized display of the traffic routes and patterns at the airport, can be concentrated on a monitor. The display can further be provided with windows for status displays, handover lines and acknowledgement lines, etc., as well as indicate the switching states of the taxiway lighting sections, the stop bars, etc. The type and extent of concentration preferably varies in relation to the amount of airport traffic. Thus, for example, if only one control station need be occupied at night, the system concentrates the relevant display data on a single monitor. As other control stations are added in the morning, when the traffic volume increases, the system reallocates the display data accordingly. This allows responsibility to be split between individual controllers in the tower, as appropriate.
According to a further advantageous refinement of the invention, responsibility is handed over between control personnel after a handshake protocol in the monitor window display or on auxiliary monitors. This allows the workstations to be allocated and shifted without impairing safety. It is an advantage here that the sequences correspond to the sequences known and used for stripless tower organization. The document TECOS Terminal Coordination System, Ident. No. 02963.0, published by Siemens in 1996 and incorporated herein by reference, shows an example of this.
The sequences described above can be implemented particularly advantageously by using a large flat screen to display the individual windows, the radar video, etc. Most preferably, the flat screen is embodied as a touchscreen. Touchscreens not only allow switching operations to be carried out by touching the appropr
Belger Lothar
Berg-Nielsen Fredrik
Castor Robert
Henriksen Einar
Jelu Andre
Nguyen Tan
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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