Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Determination of travel data based on the start point and...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-01
2003-06-10
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3663)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Determination of travel data based on the start point and...
C701S208000, C701S301000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06577947
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to travel route planning; and specifically to hazard avoidance.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Travel route planning is critically important to maintaining safe passage in a non-constrained mode of travel. Non-constrained travel modes typically comprise any mode of travel that is not confined to a specific route, i.e. a road. Hence, air travel, marine navigation and even space travel comprise some example modes of non-constrained travel. Aquatic submarines are also non-constrained vehicles. In aircraft travel, flighty safety hinges on proper flight planning. Flight plans are a required part of flight procedures as mandated by government agencies. In addition, flight planning is an ongoing activity during most flights due to changing weather conditions. This is true for marine navigation as well. In space, flight planning defines each leg of a flight from lift-off to orbit to re-entry and to landing.
The travel route planning practice has evolved over time. This evolution has fundamentally been driven by a simple goal: arriving safely at an intended destination. One aspect of travel route planning, which is especially true in non-constrained modes of travel, is that of determining the location of hazardous objects and avoiding them along the way to the final destination. Determining where hazardous objects are in time to avoid them has always been a central challenge of travel route planning. Initially, this was accomplished visually; pilots or mariners would travel along their intended route and avoid an obstacle or other hazard in due course.
These visual methods were normally compromised by poor visibility and the general inability to determine if an object was hazardous at a distance. Travelers would often find themselves in a hazardous storm before they realized its dangerous nature. As technology became more enhanced, methods such as radio reports, radar detection, and satellite systems have become extended sensors that can be used to warn pilots or mariners of hazardous objects along their intended travel route. With this type of technology, travel route planning evolved to a new level of proficiency. Flight plans and other intended travel routes could now be based on knowledge of obstacles hundreds of miles ahead of the craft.
Although the enhancements of modern technology greatly improved travel route planning and the ability to identify hazardous targets at great distances, the general operational schema of exploiting this information has remained difficult and tedious. Some of the remaining challenges to travel route planning include, but are not necessarily limited to estimating the impact of moving hazardous objects, simplifying travel route definition so as to simplify the route planning process, and optimizing travel route plans to decrease travel time and/or conserve fuel.
Now that sensor and communication technology has brought together the necessary information to construct a static travel route plan over great distances, what is needed is a way to quickly derive the best travel route plan and rapidly update it as conditions change.
SUMMARY OF THE: INVENTION
The present invention comprises a method and an apparatus for identifying hazards along a travel route plan and then providing the results of the assessment to an output port. In some cases, the output port may be coupled to a display adapter for presenting the hazard assessment to a human user. The human user may be a pilot, another member of the flight crew or any other user who may have a need for an assessment of hazardous conditions along a travel route plan. Relying on a wide variety of sensory inputs, the method of the present invention comprises a first step of receiving a target message that defines the position of a target. In some embodiments, the method provides for a first filtering step that identifies targets that may lie along the travel route plan within a predefined buffer zone. Once a target has been identified as being within this buffer zone, it is evaluated to determine if the target may be hazardous to the safety of a vehicle. The buffer zone may be received either from a human user or from a predefined zone stored in some computer readable media.
According to one illustrative method of the present invention, determining the hazardousness of a target may comprise a simple step of comparing the target to predefined hazardous condition criteria. In one example, a target may be identified as being hazardous if it meets the criteria of being a thunderstorm. This, though, is just one example of possible hazard criteria that may be applicable to the method of the present invention and should not constrain the scope of the invention. Other illustrative hazard comparisons may comprise other hazardous weather, terrestrial fixtures and high-elevation terrain. According to one illustrative method of the present invention, targets are tracked using target descriptors. Hence, target attribute data may be retrieved from a target descriptor and used as the basis for the hazard evaluation.
Once a target has been identified as being hazardous, it is marked as such. For a target that has been marked as hazardous, the method of the present invention suggests the creation of a geometric representation of the hazardous target. On a periodic basis, the method of the present invention requires an assessment of the intrusiveness of the geometric representation of the hazardous target into a geometric representation of the vehicle projected along the travel route plan of the vehicle in time or distance. According to this illustrative method, the assessment of intrusiveness may then be presented. This presentation may be made to an output port or presented to a human user. It should be noted that the geometric representation of either the vehicle or a target may either be generated locally onboard the vehicle or received from off-vehicle sources.
According to one illustrative embodiment of a method according to the teachings of the present invention, assessing the intrusiveness of the geometric representation of a hazardous target into the geometric representation of the vehicle may require partitioning the required projection into a finite number of increments. Typically, the amount of projection required is expressed in either time or distance of travel. For each successive increment, the geometric representation of the vehicle is projected to the end of the increment. If this projected geometric representation of the vehicle is found to be coincident with the geometric representation of a hazardous target, the method of the present invention provides for setting a hazard-warning-flag for that particular segment of the travel route plan corresponding to the increment.
Presentation of the assessment of intrusiveness may be accomplished in a similar manner. According to this illustrative method, the travel route plan of a vehicle may be partitioned into a plurality of segments. Each of the segments may then be displayed to a user. For each segment that has a corresponding hazard-warning-flag set active, the segment displayed may be highlighted to indicate that that segment of the travel route plan may be associated with a hazardous target. The method of assessing intrusiveness where only the vehicle is projected is typically referred to as a static target method.
Highlighting the particular segment comprises one aspect of the illustrative method taught here. Such highlighting may be accomplished by painting a line parallel to and offset from the segment that needs to be highlighted. Drawing two parallel lines that straddle the segment to be highlighted might also accomplish highlighting. In yet another alternative highlighting method taught by the present invention, displayed segments may be flashed or drawn in an alternative color to ensure that a user notices the hazardous nature of a particular segment of the flight plan.
According to an alternative illustration of the method of the present invention, a target message that is received from various senso
Chackalackal Mathew S.
Kronfeld Kevin M.
Lapis Mary Beth
Walling Karen L.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Eppele Kyle
Jensen Nathan O.
Pipala Edward
Rockwell Collins, Inc.
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