Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-09
2001-11-13
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
C701S014000, C701S024000, C244S075100, C244S175000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317659
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is generally related to flight management systems. More particularly, the present invention related to a flight management system architecture composed of a full-featured flight management system that extends a single architecture to diverse systems (e.g., communication, controllers, monitoring, data link, etc.) that are normally independently managed and not easily integratable into a flight management system architecture.
Existing flight management systems (FMS) are notoriously difficult to modify and maintain. History has generally shown that development programs that are executed strictly on the basis of reused code from existing flight management systems have unacceptably long development schedules and, therefore, excessively high development costs. Furthermore, if there are several development programs being executed concurrently, there are frequent occasions where two or more development teams are performing similar development tasks with low possibility of taking advantage of each other's work. Long development schedules, cost overruns, and lack of team synergy can all be attributed to a single characteristic of the existing systems' lack of a well documented and/or easily extensible software architecture.
Because there are generally few software architectures that are well thought-out and documented with regard to multi-system management within a flight management architecture, the primary artifact that can be used during development of new programs is code. Without software architecture, modifications are made to the code from the software developer's perspective in order to implement new requirements. Often, software requirements that are used as the basis for implementation do not reflect the original problem being solved or the original capability being added. This leads to a software solution that can be virtually incomprehensible from a user's standpoint. Over time, as changes upon changes are made, the implementation becomes an unmanageable conglomeration of software modules that all have the potential to depend on each other. When this occurs, the result is typically “spaghetti-code.” Further complicating the issue can be the fact that there are several FMS programs executing simultaneously. Because of the development process just described (basically, code-based), as soon as one program makes a change, it can be virtually impossible for that program to take advantage of desirable changes that have been made on one of the other programs or modules. Therefore, it can be entirely possible that the personnel on two or more program teams are working on the same problem at the same time and are not generally able to collaborate.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The following summary of the invention is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention, and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the invention can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
There is a need for an interface that allows for the compatibility of various flight-related modules that is not being met today. The present invention provides an improved flight management system (FMS) architecture that can be compatible with various pieces of flight-related equipment and can integrate controls modules or various aspects of flight operations and/or equipment and/or manages the modules within the entire FMS system as a product line.
One aspect of the present invention can be an FMS architecture that enables diverse subsystems at associated subsystems to interface based on defined dependencies and/or subsystem hierarchy. The FMS is responsible for control of information flowing within, and/or related to, the entire FMS. The FMS manages information flow based on rules.
Another aspect of the present invention presents a method of controlling and coordinating communication between diverse modules in an FMS. Communication can be coordinated between operational modules incorporated into the FMS; communication rules are verified during implementation and/or execution of software associated with said modules; and module operation can be continuously checked against the FMS architectural rules to ensure that module operation reflects the problem being solved and that module dependencies throughout the FMS mirror corresponding real-world dependencies as defined by FMS operating rules.
Another aspect of the present invention present an FMS for automating functions that flight crew routinely perform during flight and for providing higher-level functions normally impractical for crew performance manually. The FMS includes an architecture housing an electronic version of a flight plan and implementing complex flight operations; an interface for presenting a user view of the system architecture that can be simple and easy to understand as an interface between aircrew and aircraft; and an operator services module for allowing an operator using the interface to invoke services provided by the FMS, wherein, depending on the services invoked, the FMS can be required to obtain information from aircraft sensors and/or can assume control of aircraft avionics.
Another aspect of the present invention presents an FMS residing on a computing platform. The FMS includes an operator interface subsystem for collecting input from an operator and presenting output to the operator; a communications subsystem for managing and interpreting communications to and from aircraft and equipment used for communication; a flight management subsystem for managing functions associated with operation of an aircraft (e.g., flight planning and aircraft guidance); and a database management subsystem for managing and providing access to, databases and associated information.
The novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon examination of the following detailed description of the invention or can be learned by practice of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description of the invention and the specific examples presented, while indicating certain embodiments of the present invention, are provided for illustration purposes only because various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art from the detailed description of the invention and claims that follow.
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Clement Richard Dean
Lindsley Steven Edward
McAndrew James F.
Morgan Angela Grace
Munoz Kenneth Michael
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Hernandez Olga
Honeywell International , Inc.
Yeadon Loria B.
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