Systems and methods for controlling aircraft arrivals at a waypoint

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9355566-B2
Application number	US-201414482842-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2014
Priority date	Sep 13, 2013
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

Example systems and methods for controlling aircraft arrivals at a waypoint are disclosed. An example method for controlling aircraft arrivals at a merging waypoint includes defining a tie waypoint at a first distance from the merging waypoint and generating a first parameter set of flight instructions for aircraft arriving at the tie waypoint. The first parameter set includes an aircraft speed instruction for a target separation between a first aircraft arriving at a target waypoint downstream of the tie waypoint and a second aircraft arriving at the target waypoint. The example method includes defining a diversionary flight path at a second distance from the merging waypoint. The second distance is less than the first distance. The method also includes generating a second parameter set of flight instructions for the aircraft arriving at the diversionary flight path. In the example method, the second parameter set includes instructions for the first aircraft to follow at least a part of the diversionary flight path before flying to the merging waypoint. A total flight path distance of the first aircraft is to increase when an expected arrival of the first and second aircraft at the target waypoint has a separation that is smaller than a threshold separation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling aircraft arrivals at a merging waypoint, the method comprising:
defining a tie waypoint at a first distance from the merging waypoint;
generating a first parameter set of flight instructions for aircraft arriving at the tie waypoint, the first parameter set including an aircraft speed instruction for a target separation between a first aircraft arriving at a target waypoint downstream of the tie waypoint and a second aircraft arriving at the target waypoint;
defining a diversionary flight path at a second distance from the merging waypoint, wherein the second distance is less than the first distance; and
generating a second parameter set of flight instructions for the first aircraft arriving at the diversionary flight path, the second parameter set of flight instructions based on target aircraft capacity at the merging waypoint, the second parameter set including instructions for the first aircraft to follow at least a part of the diversionary flight path before flying to the merging waypoint, wherein a total flight path distance of the first aircraft is to increase when an expected arrival of the first and second aircraft at the target waypoint has a separation that is less than a threshold separation.

2. A method of controlling aircraft arrivals at a merging waypoint, the method comprising:
defining a tie waypoint at a first distance from the merging waypoint;
generating a first parameter set of flight instructions for aircraft arriving at the tie waypoint, the first parameter set including an aircraft speed instruction for a target separation between a first aircraft arriving at a target waypoint downstream of the tie waypoint and a second aircraft arriving at the target waypoint;
defining a diversionary flight path at a second distance from the merging waypoint, wherein the second distance is less than the first distance;
generating a second parameter set of flight instructions for the first aircraft arriving at the diversionary flight path, the second parameter set including instructions for the first aircraft to follow at least a part of the diversionary flight path before flying to the merging waypoint, wherein a total flight path distance of the first aircraft is to increase when an expected arrival of the first and second aircraft at the target waypoint has a separation that is less than a threshold separation; and
performing an iteration of regenerating the first parameter set and regenerating the second parameter set to generate, respectively, modified first and second parameter sets of flight instructions that decrease fuel consumption of the first aircraft.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising regenerating the first parameter set and the second parameter set until the first and second parameter sets of flight instructions meet a convergence criterion.

4. A method of controlling aircraft arrivals at a merging waypoint, the method comprising:
defining a tie waypoint at a first distance from the merging waypoint;
generating a first parameter set of flight instructions for aircraft arriving at the tie waypoint, the first parameter set including an aircraft speed instruction for a target separation between a first aircraft arriving at a target waypoint downstream of the tie waypoint and a second aircraft arriving at the target waypoint;
defining a diversionary flight path at a second distance from the merging waypoint, wherein the second distance is less than the first distance;
generating a second parameter set of flight instructions for the first aircraft arriving at the diversionary flight path, the second parameter set including instructions for the first aircraft to follow at least a part of the diversionary flight path before flying to the merging waypoint, wherein a total flight path distance of the first aircraft is to increase when an expected arrival of the first and second aircraft at the target waypoint has a separation that is less than a threshold separation; and
after generating the second parameter set, redefining the tie waypoint and regenerating the first parameter set to decrease aircraft fuel consumption while maintaining a separation at the target waypoint that exceeds the threshold separation.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising, after redefining the tie waypoint and regenerating the first parameter set:
redefining the diversionary flight path and regenerating the second parameter set to optimize the aircraft fuel consumption while maintaining a separation at the target waypoint that exceeds the threshold separation.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
iteratively repeating redefining the tie waypoint and regenerating the first parameter set and redefining the diversionary flight path and regenerating the second parameter set until at least one of (1) redefining the tie waypoint and regenerating the first parameter set or (2) redefining the diversionary flight path and regenerating the second parameter set converge to meet a convergence criterion.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the diversionary flight path and the second parameter set are fixed, and the first distance is redefined and the first parameter set is regenerated based on the fixed diversionary flight path and second parameter set.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the redefined tie waypoint and the regenerated first parameter set are fixed, and the diversionary flight path is redefined and the second parameter set is regenerated based on the fixed redefined tie waypoint and regenerated first parameter set.

9. A method of controlling aircraft arrivals at a merging waypoint, the method comprising:
defining a tie waypoint at a first distance from the merging waypoint;
generating a first parameter set of flight instructions for aircraft arriving at the tie waypoint, the first parameter set including an aircraft speed instruction for a target separation between a first aircraft arriving at a target waypoint downstream of the tie waypoint and a second aircraft arriving at the target waypoint, wherein generating the first parameter set of flight instructions comprises generating a look-up table including a plurality of aircraft speeds for a plurality of separations between the first and second aircraft;
defining a diversionary flight path at a second distance from the merging waypoint, wherein the second distance is less than the first distance; and
generating a second parameter set of flight instructions for the first aircraft arriving at the diversionary flight path, the second parameter set including instructions for the first aircraft to follow at least a part of the diversionary flight path before flying to the merging waypoint, wherein a total flight path distance of the first aircraft is to increase when an expected arrival of the first and second aircraft at the target waypoint has a separation that is less than a threshold separation.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the contents of the look-up table are generated based on target aircraft capacity at the merging waypoint.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the contents of the look-up table are further generated based on simulations of a plurality of flights constrained by one or more of airspace configuration, weather conditions, altitude constraints, speed constraints, aircraft guidance or aircraft performance.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flight instructions are based on simulations of a plurality of flights, each of the flights constrained by one or more of the following:
(a) the first distance from the tie way point to the merging waypoint;
(b) the first parameter set of flight instructions for the aircraft arriving at the

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Garrido-Lopez David
• Gomez Ledesma Ramon

Classifications

• G08G5/26

  Transmission of traffic-related information between aircraft and ground stations · CPC title

• G08G5/727

  from a ground station · CPC title

• G08G5/56

  for two or more aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/34 Primary

  for flight plan modification · CPC title

• G08G5/0039 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic