Method and system for generating a lateral trajectory of an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12547181-B2
Application number	US-202318352442-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 14, 2023
Priority date	Jul 18, 2022
Publication date	Feb 10, 2026
Grant date	Feb 10, 2026

Abstract

To bring an aircraft in flight from an initial position to a destination, an automatic trajectory generation system: obtains polygons representative of obstacles potentially encountered by the aircraft; and searches for a lateral trajectory that is flyable by performing circumventions of polygons by their vertices, by observing a pre-established vertical trajectory profile. The lateral trajectory being sought by discovering the polygons to be effectively taken into account to perform the circumventions, by gradually identifying the polygons which form obstacles to the progress of the flyable lateral trajectory. Thus, the quantity of polygons to be taken into account in searching for the flyable lateral trajectory is reduced.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method for generating a trajectory to bring an aircraft in flight from an initial position of the aircraft to a destination having a georeferenced position, the method being implemented by an automatic trajectory generation system formed as electronic circuitry embedded in the aircraft, the method comprising the following steps:
obtaining polygons representative of obstacles potentially encountered by the aircraft from the initial position of the aircraft to the destination, each polygon being associated with an altitude layer in which the obstacle is included in said polygon; identifying vertices associated with the polygons, each vertex located at a concave part of a polygon; searching for a lateral trajectory that is flyable between the initial position of the aircraft and the destination by circumventing the polygons by the vertices, by observing a pre-established vertical trajectory profile; the lateral trajectory being sought as follows:
evaluating first trajectories, which are direct trajectories between a current position of the aircraft and the destination by taking account of a direction of flight of the aircraft at the current position and a direction to be followed to the destination, the current position of the aircraft being initially the initial position of the aircraft, and identifying any polygon encountered in the first trajectories;
evaluating a second trajectory, which is a vertex-circumventing trajectory, between said current position of the aircraft and each identified polygon vertex;
identifying any new polygon encountered in the second trajectories;
choosing a new current position of the aircraft from among the identified polygon vertices for each of which a direct flyable trajectory to the vertex concerned exists, and reiterating until a current position of the aircraft is found for which at least one first trajectory exists without encountering a polygon;
the lateral trajectory being further sought in such a way that, when a new polygon is identified, one second trajectory is evaluated for each vertex of each new identified polygon, and this is done, with respect to each preceding current position, with a possible identification of a new encountered polygon.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the lateral trajectory is sought, by iterations on successive current positions of the aircraft, for:
a first phase investigating the direct trajectory between the current position of the aircraft which has been selected for a particular iteration and the destination, and investigating possible circumventions of vertices from the current position of the aircraft which has been selected for the iteration concerned; a second phase investigating possible circumventions of vertices, for the polygons identified during the iteration concerned, from each preceding current position.

3 . The method according to claim 2 ,
wherein, when a polygon is newly encountered, each of its vertices for which a direct flyable trajectory to this vertex exists is marked as an open position, and wherein, in the first phase, the current position which has been selected for the particular iteration concerned is marked as closed position, and in the second phase, the positions marked as closed are the preceding current positions.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the new current position is chosen from among the positions marked as open.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each identified polygon vertex for which a direct flyable trajectory to this vertex exists is associated with a heuristic, or with a cost of inclusion of a circumvention of said vertex in the lateral trajectory to the destination, in order to choose the current new position from among the identified polygon vertices.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the following successive steps, before searching for the lateral trajectory:
expanding the polygons by a predetermined lateral margin in all directions, the predetermined lateral margin making it possible to ensure safe instrument navigation of the aircraft; merging the polygons which touch or overlap for each altitude layer; retracting the polygons by the predetermined lateral margin in all directions.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , comprising the following step, before searching for the lateral trajectory:
keeping only the polygons of the layers which are relevant with respect to a constant altitude or an altitude interval defined by the vertical trajectory profile.

8 . A computer including a non-transitory memory containing a computer program comprising instructions causing an implementation of the method according to claim 1 , when the instructions are executed by a processor.

9 . An automatic trajectory generation system for bringing an aircraft in flight from an initial position of the aircraft to a destination having a georeferenced position, the automatic trajectory generation system comprising electronic circuitry which is configured to be embedded in the aircraft and which is configured to implement the following steps:
obtaining polygons representative of obstacles potentially encountered by the aircraft from the initial position of the aircraft to the destination, each polygon being associated with an altitude layer in which the obstacle is included in said polygon; identifying vertices associated with the polygons, each vertex located at a concave part of a polygon; searching for a flyable lateral trajectory between a current position of the aircraft and the destination by circumventing the polygon by the vertices, by observing a pre-established vertical trajectory profile; the lateral trajectory being sought as follows:
evaluating first trajectories, which are direct trajectories between the current position of the aircraft and the destination by taking account of a direction of flight of the aircraft at the current position and of a direction to be followed to the destination, the current position of the aircraft being initially the initial position of the aircraft, and identifying any polygon encountered in the first trajectories;
evaluating a second trajectory, which is a vertex-circumventing trajectory, between said current position of the aircraft and each identified polygon vertex;
identifying any new polygon encountered in the second trajectories;
choosing a new current position of the aircraft from among the identified polygon vertices for each of which a direct flyable trajectory to the vertex concerned exists, and reiterating until a current position of the aircraft is found for which at least one first trajectory exists without encountering any polygon;
the lateral trajectory being further sought in such a way that, when a new polygon is identified, one second trajectory is evaluated for each vertex of each new identified polygon, and this is done, with respect to each preceding current position, with possible identification of a new encountered polygon.

10 . An aircraft comprising the automatic trajectory generation system according to claim 9 .

Assignees

• Airbus Sas

Inventors

• Consiglieri Pedroso Mendes Dias Miguel
• Pastre Thomas

Classifications

• G08G5/21 Primary

  located onboard the aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/80

  Anti-collision systems · CPC title

• G05D1/0088

  characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours (using knowledge based models G06N5/00) · CPC title

• G08G5/76

  for monitoring atmospheric conditions · CPC title

• G08G5/59

  in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones · CPC title