Ground unit, aircraft and method for transmitting flight instructions from a ground unit to an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10243931-B2
Application number	US-201715471974-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2017
Priority date	Apr 8, 2016
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

The transmission of flight instructions from a ground unit to an aircraft comprising an onboard system. The ground unit is configured to generate, on the basis of flight data intended for the aircraft, at least one optical symbol containing a flight instruction. The onboard system comprises an optical reader and a flight management system. The optical reader is configured to read the optical symbol and to transfer the flight instruction contained in the symbol to the flight management system to prepare the flight of the aircraft.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A ground unit for transmitting flight instructions to an aircraft comprising an onboard system, comprising:
a receiver configured to receive a flight data via a transmitted data bitstream;
a central processing unit configured to generate at least one flight instruction based on the flight data,
a database of a plurality of aircraft and a plurality of public keys, each key associated with a unique aircraft from the plurality of aircraft, the database being in communication with the central processing unit,
means of generating an optical symbol, connected to the central processing unit and configured for generating each flight instruction in a form of an optical symbol, wherein each flight instruction includes a public key from the plurality of public keys; and
means of encrypting, with a private key of the ground unit and with a public key from the plurality of public keys, the at least one generated flight instruction.

2. The ground unit according to claim 1 , wherein the optical symbol is a QR code.

3. The ground unit according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one flight instruction contains flight data transcribed in a form of character strings readable by an onboard device of an aircraft, each flight instruction, generated by the ground unit, comprising a header which is a function of a type of flight data of the instruction.

4. An aircraft, comprising:
an onboard system configured to read flight instructions generated by a ground unit, wherein the onboard system comprises an optical reader, a database of public keys and coordinates for a plurality of ground units, and a flight management system,
each public key being associated with a unique ground unit,
the optical reader configured to extract a flight instruction contained in an optical symbol and to transfer the flight instruction to the flight management system to prepare the flight of the aircraft, and,
the flight management system configured to automate at least one avionics functions of the aircraft in response to a reception of the flight instruction from the optical reader which has been authenticated with a public key from database of public keys.

5. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the onboard system is configured to decrypt, with a public key of the ground unit from the database and with a private key of the aircraft an optical symbol to obtain the flight instruction.

6. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the optical reader comprises a switch associated with a clock.

7. The aircraft according to claim 5 , wherein the optical reader comprises a microcontroller connected to a camera, the microcontroller configured to implement an algorithm for recognition of optical symbols configured for decoding, with a private key of the aircraft, the optical symbol captured by the camera to obtain the flight instruction.

8. The aircraft according to claim 5 , wherein the onboard system comprises a securization system connected between the optical reader and the flight management system, the unit being configured to authorize or not authorize transfer of the flight instruction from the optical reader to the flight management system.

9. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the optical symbol is a QR code.

10. The aircraft according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one flight instruction contains flight data transcribed in a form of character strings readable by an onboard device of an aircraft, and wherein each flight instruction, generated by the ground unit, comprises a header which is a function of a type of flight data of the flight instruction.

11. A method for transmitting flight data from a ground unit to an aircraft comprising an onboard system, the method comprising the steps:
transmitting different flight data to a receiver of the ground unit via a data bitstream, the ground unit generating at least one flight instruction on a basis of the flight data, the at least one flight instruction containing flight data transcribed in a form of character strings readable by a flight management system of the aircraft, wherein each flight instruction, generated by the ground unit, comprises a header which is a function of a type of flight data of the flight instruction;
generating, by the ground unit, via optical symbol generation means and for each flight instruction, an optical symbol;
transferring each flight instruction to the onboard system of the aircraft by reading of the optical symbol, during which a crew of a destination aircraft passes each optical symbol generated by the ground unit in front of a camera of an optical reader of the onboard system in order to retrieve the flight instruction contained in the symbol, the retrieved instruction being uploaded into a flight management system of the aircraft;
validating by the crew of the flight data resulting from the uploading of a flight instruction into the flight management system which are displayed on a screen in a cockpit, via a control interface.

12. The transmission method according to claim 11 , wherein the generating step comprises encrypting, with a private key of the ground unit and with a public key of the aircraft, of each flight instruction generated.

13. The transmission method according to claim 11 , wherein the reading step comprises decrypting, with a public key of the ground unit and with a private key of the aircraft, of each flight instruction.

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas

Inventors

• Latorre-Costa Pau

Classifications

• H04L9/14

  using a plurality of keys or algorithms · CPC title

• H04L63/0428 Primary

  wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload · CPC title

• G08G5/0017

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K19/06009

  with optically detectable marking (G06K19/063, G06K19/08 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06K7/1404

  Methods for optical code recognition · CPC title