Aircraft performance computation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10109117-B2
Application number	US-201514803042-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2015
Priority date	Jul 18, 2014
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

A computer implemented method of computing performance for an aircraft, comprises the steps of collecting data from a plurality of data sources comprising data sources of avionics type and external data sources of non-avionics type; processing the data collected in an electronic device of EFB or electronic flight bag type; and undertaking the performance computation. Developments describe the extraction of data from images or audio streams; the manipulation of data of alarm, INOP, aircraft status, air conditioning and anti-ice, runway, ATIS, meteorological and/or NOTAM type; the interfaces with an FPS or flight planning system and/or a CMS or centralized maintenance system. System aspects and software aspects are described.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method of computing performance for an aircraft, comprising:
collecting data from a plurality of data sources including avionics type data sources and external non-avionics type data sources with an electronic flight bag (EFB) type device, wherein the step of collecting data comprises:
a step of acquiring with an image capture device of the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device at least one image of at least one viewing screen in a cockpit of the aircraft, the cockpit having one or more viewing screens, and
a step of extracting data from the at least one image acquired in the cockpit utilizing optical character recognition to generate extracted data with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device;

processing the extracted data collected in the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device; and
performing automatically a performance computation of the extracted data for the aircraft with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device.

2. A system for an extraction of data from one or more images acquired in a cockpit of an aircraft, said system comprising means for implementing:
a collection of data from a plurality of data sources including avionics type data sources and external non-avionics type data sources, wherein the collection of data comprises an acquisition with an image capture device of an electronic flight bag (EFB) type device of at least one image of at least one viewing screen in the cockpit of the aircraft, the cockpit having one or more viewing screens, and an extraction of the data from the at least one image acquired in the cockpit;
a recognition of characters within the acquired a least one image with the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device;
a data processing system for the data collected in the electronic flight bag (EFB) type device; and
an automatic computation of a performance of the aircraft based on a processing of the data collected by the data processing system.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of collecting data further comprising a step of extracting data from an audio stream.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the collected data comprising one or more data comprising alarm, INOP, aircraft status, air conditioning and anti-ice, runway, ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service), meteorological and/or NOTAM (Notice To Airmen) type.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processing step further comprises one or more operations from among operations of interpretation, filtering and conversion of the extracted data.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the avionics data sources being transmitted by interface equipment of the aircraft from data arising from an FPS (flight planning system) and/or a CMS (centralized maintenance system).

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the external data sources being transmitted by one or more ground servers and the external data comprising meteorological and/or NOTAM notices type data.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the external data sources furthermore comprising data arising from the Internet network.

9. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the operation of interpreting the collected data being performed by means of an avionics protocols model.

10. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the operation of converting the collected data being performed by means of a predefined conversion file.

11. The system according to claim 2 , further comprising means for implementing:
a reception of a correction or of the validation of one or more items of data by a pilot prior to the performance computation.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Fournier François
• Le Reun Heloïse
• Boyer Marc

Classifications

• B64D2045/0075

  Adaptations for use of electronic flight bags in aircraft; Supports therefor in the cockpit · CPC title

• B64D45/00

  Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G07C5/0866

  the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera · CPC title

• G07C5/0808 Primary

  Diagnosing performance data (testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005) · CPC title