Aircraft system for signaling the presence of an obstacle, an aircraft equipped with this system, and method for the detection of an obstacle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9583011-B2
Application number	US-201514607224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2015
Priority date	Jan 28, 2015
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

A system of an aircraft for signaling the presence of an obstacle during visual flight, which system includes at least one onboard unit to be installed in an aircraft to be equipped, which onboard unit includes an onboard database that stores at least one obstacle to be avoided during flight. The onboard unit includes an interface to be installed in the aircraft and whose function is to authorize the addition and the deletion of obstacles in the onboard database, with the interface being in communication with the onboard database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for being installed in an aircraft in order to signal a presence of an obstacle during visual flight of the aircraft, the system comprising:
at least one onboard unit for being installed on board the aircraft, which onboard unit includes an onboard database for being installed on board the aircraft, which onboard database stores at least one obstacle to be avoided during flight, with an obstacle consisting of an object located on a surface of a planet that is not identified as being a part of the planet surface,
wherein the onboard unit further includes a processing unit communicating with the onboard database and a positioning unit communicating with the processing unit, the positioning unit having a function of determining a position in space of the aircraft,
wherein the onboard unit further includes a manual interface for being installed on board the aircraft and whose function is to authorize manual addition and deletion of obstacles, visually detected by an operator on board the aircraft, to and from the onboard database by the operator on board the aircraft during flight of the aircraft, with the interface being in communication directly with the onboard database, the onboard database storing with an obstacle added to or deleted from the onboard database via the interface the position in space of the aircraft from the positioning unit at the time the obstacle is added to or deleted from the onboard database, and with the system further including confirmation means for confirming with an operator on the ground while the aircraft is on the ground after flight that an obstacle deleted from the onboard database via the interface is absent from a location of the planet surface corresponding to the position in space of the aircraft at the time the obstacle was deleted from the onboard database and that an obstacle added to the onboard database via the interface is present at a location of the planet surface corresponding to the position in space of the aircraft at the time the obstacle was added to the onboard database.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the onboard database includes a frozen database that cannot be modified by the interface during flight of the aircraft and an adaptive database that can be modified by the interface during flight of the aircraft.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the frozen database includes a terrain database or an obstacle database.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the onboard unit further includes a signaling unit communicating with the processing unit, with the signaling unit having a function of signaling an obstacle when the processing unit determines proximity to the aircraft of an obstacle listed in the onboard database.

5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the signaling unit includes visual warning means or audible warning means.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the audible warning means include an onboard telephone.

7. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the visual warning means include a display screen.

8. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the onboard unit includes a calculator, which calculator includes, in a single body, the processing unit and the onboard database, with the calculator being connected to the positioning unit, the interface, and the signaling unit.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the onboard unit includes, in a single body, the processing unit, the onboard database, and the interface.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the onboard unit includes an onboard obstacle-detection device that is in communication with the onboard database in order to update the onboard database.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system includes a non-onboard database that communicates with the onboard database in order to be updated by the onboard database and in order to update the onboard database.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the system includes transfer means for transferring data between the onboard database and the non-onboard database.

13. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the transfer means include a computer and communication means that place the onboard database and the computer in communication with each other.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the non-onboard database is shared, by being able to communicate with a plurality of onboard databases that are separate from a plurality of onboard units.

15. The system according claim 11 , wherein the system includes several onboard units to be placed in several aircraft and a single non-onboard database.

16. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the onboard unit further includes a signaling unit communicating with the processing unit, with the signaling unit having a function of signaling an obstacle listed in the onboard database to the operator when the processing unit determines proximity to the aircraft of the obstacle; and
wherein the manual interface authorizes manual deletion of the obstacle from the onboard database by the operator in response to the operator visually detecting an absence of the obstacle after the signaling unit signaled the obstacle to the operator.

17. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system includes several onboard units, with each onboard unit including a communications device to signal addition or deletion of an obstacle to another onboard unit.

18. An aircraft comprising:
an onboard database of an onboard unit installed on board the aircraft, the onboard database stores at least one obstacle to be avoided during flight, with an obstacle consisting of an object located on a surface of a planet that is not identified as being a part of the planet surface;
a processing unit communicating with the onboard database, a communications unit communicating with the processing unit, and a positioning unit communicating with the processing unit, the positioning unit having a function of determining a position in space of the aircraft;
a manual interface of the onboard unit whose function is to authorize manual addition and deletion of obstacles, visually detected by an operator on board the aircraft, to and from the onboard database by the operator on board the aircraft during flight of the aircraft, with the interface being in communication directly with the onboard database, the onboard database storing with an obstacle added to or deleted from the onboard database via the interface the position in space of the aircraft from the positioning unit at the time the obstacle is added to or deleted from the onboard database; and
wherein the onboard database is in communication via the communication unit with an operator on the ground to confirm with the operator on the ground while the aircraft is on the ground after flight that an obstacle deleted from the onboard database via the interface is absent from a location of the planet surface corresponding to the position in space of the aircraft at the time the obstacle was deleted from the onboard database and that an obstacle added to the onboard database via the interface is present at a location of the planet surface corresponding to the position in space of the aircraft at the time the obstacle was added to the onboard database.

19. The aircraft of claim 18 further comprising:
a signaling unit communicating with the processing unit, wherein the signaling unit signals an obstacle listed in the onboard database to the operator when the processing unit determines proximity to the aircraft of the

Assignees

• Airbus Helicopters

Inventors

• Ott Adrien

Classifications

• G08G5/0086 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0013

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/045

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0021

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01C21/005

  with correlation of navigation data from several sources, e.g. map or contour matching (G01C21/30 takes precedence) · CPC title