Aid method for piloting an aircraft, associated computer progam product and aid device for piloting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10360802-B2
Application number	US-201715684155-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 23, 2017
Priority date	Aug 26, 2016
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

An aid method for piloting an aircraft including acquiring an instruction intended to alter the flight plan, determining an applicability period of the instruction made up of a plurality of applicability moments of the instruction in which the application of the instruction is compatible with the operational capabilities of the aircraft and with the constraints of the flight plan, for each applicability moment of the instruction, determining an altered flight plan in case of application of the instruction at this applicability moment and calculating values of the operational parameters associated with this flight plan, and selecting an optimal applicability moment based on values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan and operational parameters associated with the current flight plan.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aid method for piloting an aircraft, the aircraft comprising a set of systems implementing operational capabilities of the aircraft, the aircraft performing a flight according to a flight plan, the flight plan including a plurality of waypoints of the aircraft and a plurality of constraints at least at some of these waypoints, the flight plan being associated with operational parameters relative to the flight and/or the aircraft and assuming different values at various waypoints of the flight plan, the method comprising:
acquiring an instruction from a system outside the aircraft to alter a current flight plan of the aircraft;
determining an applicability period of the instruction comprising a plurality of applicability moments at which performance of the instruction is compatible with the operational capabilities of the aircraft and with the constraints of the current flight plan of the aircraft, each applicability moment being defined relative to a moment in time of the flight or relative to a geographical position of the aircraft;
for each applicability moment, determining an altered flight plan if the instruction were to be performed at the applicability moment, and calculating values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan; and
selecting an optimal applicability moment from among the plurality of applicability moments based on values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan corresponding to each applicability moment and values of the operational parameters associated with the current flight plan, comprising verifying a plurality of optimization criteria.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising replacing the current flight plan with the altered flight plan corresponding to the optimal applicability moment of the instruction.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising notifying a pilot of the applicability period of the instruction and the optimal applicability moment.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising a piloting command applying the instruction at the optimal applicability moment.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising notifying a pilot of incompatibility when there is no applicability moment at which performance of the instruction is compatible with the operational capabilities of the aircraft and with the constraints of the current flight plan of the aircraft.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein one or more of the operational parameters correspond to an element chosen from the group consisting of: remaining flight time, quantity of fuel available in the aircraft, altitude of the aircraft, speed of the aircraft, and weight of the aircraft.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said selecting an optimal applicability moment comprises calculating deviations between values of the operational parameters associated with each altered flight plan and values of the operational parameters associated with the current flight plan.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising generating an optimization report, the optimization report comprising deviations between values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan corresponding to the optimal applicability moment and values of the operational parameters associated with the current flight plan.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimization criteria are accessed from a database, the optimization criteria being determined by an airline operating the aircraft.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, in case of alteration of the current flight plan or operational parameters associated with the current flight plan for reasons other than performance of the instruction, said determining an applicability period, said determining an altered flight plan, and said selecting an optimal applicability moment are carried out again.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor of a computer, cause the computer to implement the method of claim 1 .

12. An aid device for piloting an aircraft, the aircraft including a set of systems implementing operational capabilities of the aircraft, the aircraft performing a flight according to a flight plan, the flight plan including a plurality of waypoints of the aircraft and a plurality of constraints at least at some of these waypoints, the flight plan being associated with operational parameters relative to the flight and/or the aircraft and assuming different values at various waypoints of the flight plan, wherein the device is configured to:
acquire an instruction from a system outside the aircraft to alter a current flight plan of the aircraft;
determine an applicability period of the instruction comprising a plurality of applicability moments at which performance of the instruction is compatible with the operational capabilities of the aircraft and with the constraints of the current flight plan of the aircraft, each applicability moment being defined relative to a moment in time of the flight or relative to a geographical position of the aircraft;
for each applicability moment, determine an altered flight plan if the instruction were to be performed at the applicability moment, and calculate values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan; and
select an optimal applicability moment from among the plurality of applicability moments based on values of the operational parameters associated with the altered flight plan corresponding to each applicability moment and values of the operational parameters associated with the current flight plan, by verifying a plurality of optimization criteria.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• D'Silva Cédric
• Sacle Jérôme
• Rossi Nicolas

Classifications

• G05D1/101

  specially adapted for aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/0047

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0021

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0013

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0039 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic