System for determining a flight rest scenario for an aircraft crew

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12327205-B2
Application number	US-202217586242-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2022
Priority date	Feb 1, 2021
Publication date	Jun 10, 2025
Grant date	Jun 10, 2025

Abstract

A system is ( 10 ) for determining a flight rest scenario for an aircraft crew ( 12 ) comprising at least two pilots able to fly the aircraft ( 12 ) during a flight. The system ( 10 ) comprises a display device ( 16 ) comprising a screen ( 20 ), a module ( 32 ) for acquiring flight context and constraints inputs, and a module ( 34 ) for determining at least one crew rest scenario for the flight from the acquired inputs. The determination module ( 34 ) is able to determine the rest scenario from at least one simulation by a biomathematical fatigue model having at least one of the acquired inputs as variables. The system also includes a display management module ( 36 ) configured to display the determined rest scenario on the screen ( 20 ) of the display device ( 16 ).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for determining an in-flight rest scenario for a crew of an aircraft, the crew comprising at least two pilots able to fly the aircraft during a flight of the aircraft, the system comprising:
a display device comprising a screen;
an acquisition module configured for acquiring flight context and constraints inputs, the flight context and constraints inputs comprising at least one piloting constraint on piloting by the crew of the aircraft;
a determination module configured for determining at least one in-flight rest scenario for the crew from the acquired flight context and constraints inputs, the determination module being configured to determine the in-flight rest scenario from at least one simulation by a biomathematical fatigue model having at least one of the acquired flight context and constraints inputs as variables;
a human/machine interface configured to receive interactions of a user, the interactions being input by a keyboard, a mouse and/or a touch control device configured for detecting the position on a surface of the touch control device of one or more members; and
a display management module configured to:
display an input acquisition window on the screen of the display device, comprising a plurality of graphical input acquisition areas, each graphical input acquisition area being associated to at least one of the piloting constraints, the acquisition module being configured to acquire at least one of the piloting constraints by a user activating graphical elements displayed on the screen of the display device in each graphical input acquisition area via the human/machine interface,
in response to at least one of the interactions via the human/machine interface with at least one of the graphical elements displayed on the input acquisition window:
determine at least two candidate chronologies, each candidate chronology including at least one rest period being compatible with each piloting constraint and being assigned to one of the pilots, each candidate chronology further including, for each pilot, at least one duty period for the pilot, the two candidate chronologies extending over a same time frame of the flight of the aircraft,
simulate and determine at least one fatigue level of each pilot, for each compatible candidate chronology, by the biomathematical model,
classify each compatible candidate chronology according to an order relationship established from the simulated fatigue levels,

display a results windows on the screen of the display device, comprising a rest scenario graphical area including a graphical representation of the determined in-flight rest scenario determined for a cruise phase of flight, the graphical representation of the determined in-flight rest scenario comprising at least two timelines, one for each pilot, at least one timescale arranged opposite the timelines, and a graphical representation of the at least one rest period of the compatible candidate chronology that has a best classification according to the order relationship being placed on at least one of the two timelines, the graphical representation of the determined in-flight rest scenario comprising, for each of the at least one rest period, a graphical information representative of the starting time and/or a graphical information representative of the end time of the rest period assigned to the pilot displayed along a timescale indicating a time period of the flight,
receive an input by the user, via the human/machine interface, to modify at least one of the piloting constraints inputs by at least one of the interactions of the user with at least one of the activated graphical elements displayed on the screen of the display device, and
in response to the at least one interaction of the user with at least one of the activated graphical elements displayed on the screen of the display device, modifying a position in time of at least one of the rest periods within at least one of the timelines by displaying the graphical information representative of the starting time and/or the graphical information representative of the end time of the rest period assigned to the pilot at a different position along the timescale.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the or one of the piloting constraints is a minimum number of pilot(s) required on duty at each moment of the cruise phase;
and/or the or one of the piloting constraints is a predetermined temporal or geographical area of flight requiring a predetermined number of pilots on duty.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the flight context and constraints inputs include at least one pre-flight fatigue parameter for each pilot, representing a pre-flight fatigue state reported by the pilot, the biomathematical model having the pre-flight fatigue parameter as a variable.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the determination module is configured to simulate and determine, by the biomathematical model and for each compatible candidate chronology, a maximum fatigue level of each pilot on duty during each rest period of each other pilot and/or a fatigue level at a calculated top of descent time of the aircraft of at least each pilot scheduled to be on duty at the time, the order relationship being established on at least one of the simulated and determined fatigue levels.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the flight context and constraint inputs include an available cruise time, a number of required rest period(s) to be provided for the crew, and a rest period duration,
the determination module being configured to discretize the available cruise time into a plurality of discretized moments, the discretization being done with a predetermined discretized timestep, the discretized timestep being smaller than the available cruise time,
the determination module being configured to determine each compatible candidate chronology such that each rest period of the compatible candidate chronology has a start time corresponding to one of the discretized moments.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the determination module is configured, after discretization, to list all of the chronologies of rest periods in which each rest period has a start time corresponding to one of the discretized moments, and to verify, for each listed chronology, whether the listed chronology is compatible with each piloting constraint thereby determining the compatible candidate chronologies.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein, after determining the compatible candidate chronology having the best classification, the determination module is configured to determine, for each rest period of the chronology, a time window including the rest period,
the determination module being configured to discretize, with a reduced discretized timestep, each time window into a plurality of reduced discretized moments, the reduced discretized timestep being smaller than the predetermined discretized timestep,
the determination module being configured, after reduced discretization, to list all the new chronologies of rest periods in which each rest period has a start time corresponding to one of the reduced discretized moments, and to verify, for each listed new chronology, whether the listed new chronology is compatible with each piloting constraint,
the determination module being configured to simulate and determine, by the biomathematical model and for each new compatible chronology, at least one new fatigue level of each pilot,
the determination module being configured to classify each new compatible chronology, according to the order relationship, established from the new simulated fatigue levels, the determined in-flight rest scenario comprising the new compatible chronology having the best classifi

Assignees

• Dassault Aviat

Inventors

• Salmon-Legagneur François
• Denjean Jean-Christophe
• Ligier Valentin
• Michon Astrid

Classifications

• A61L2103/23

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• G06F3/04847

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