Automated transmission of aircraft anomalous incident data via preferred transmission modes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9607447-B2
Application number	US-201514675317-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2015
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to techniques for automated transmission of surveillance incident data or other anomalous incident data from an aircraft via a preferred transmission mode. An example method includes detecting, by a processing device onboard an aircraft, an anomalous incident involving the aircraft that qualities for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incident reporting criteria. The method further includes identifying, by the processing device, data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalous incident. The method further includes detecting that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the data relevant to the anomalous incident. The method further includes communicating the data relevant to the anomalous incident to a transmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
detecting, by a processing device onboard an aircraft, an anomalous incident involving the aircraft that qualifies for reporting relative to a set of anomalous incident reporting criteria;
identifying, by the processing device, data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalous incident;
determining, by the processing device, a priority level of the anomalous incident;
detecting, by the processing device, that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the data relevant to the anomalous incident; and
communicating, by the processing device, the data relevant to the anomalous incident to a transmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode;
wherein if the priority level is low, detecting that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode network comprises detecting that the aircraft is at or proximate to an airport gate.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the data relevant to the anomalous incident stored on the aircraft system of the aircraft comprises identifying data relevant to a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) Resolution Advisory (RA), another type of surveillance alert, a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) alert, a weather system alert, a flight dynamics alert, a cabin pressure alert, a pilot condition alert, an internal status alert, or another type of trigger from an anomaly alerting system.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting the anomalous incident involving the aircraft; and
storing the data relevant to the anomalous incident, prior to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein detecting the anomalous incident comprises detecting via at least one of a TCAS system, a ground proximity warning system (GPWS), a weather radar system, a flight dynamics alert system, a cabin pressure alert system, a pilot condition alert system, an internal status alert system, another type of cooperative surveillance system, another type of radar system, a lidar system, an ultrasound sensor system, an infrared sensor system, an optical image recognition system, or another type of sensor system.

5. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the set of anomalous incident reporting criteria comprise criteria based on at least one of: a time to intercept between the aircraft and an external hazard, a distance between the aircraft and the external hazard, a velocity change needed for the aircraft to avoid the external hazard, and a trigger from an anomaly alerting system, and
wherein determining whether the anomalous incident qualifies for reporting relative to the set of anomalous incident reporting criteria comprises determining at least one of: whether the aircraft came within a minimum separation threshold of the external hazard based on the set of anomalous incident reporting criteria, or whether the trigger from the anomaly alerting system qualifies for generating an anomalous incident report,
wherein determining whether the aircraft came within the minimum separation threshold of the external hazard based on the set of anomalous incident reporting criteria comprises determining: that the time to intercept between the aircraft and the external hazard was less than a threshold time; that the distance between the aircraft and the external hazard was less than a threshold distance, wherein the threshold distance is determined at least in part on the altitude of the aircraft; or that the velocity change needed for the aircraft to avoid the external hazard was greater than a threshold velocity change.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the data onboard the aircraft relevant to the anomalous incident involving the aircraft comprises evaluating available data from one or more aircraft systems to select a portion of the available data determined to be relevant to the incident, and
wherein communicating the data relevant to the anomalous incident to the transmission system for transmission from the aircraft comprises communicating to the transmission system the selected portion of the available data determined to be relevant to the anomalous incident.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting the data transmission mode based on the determined priority level of the anomalous incident, thereby determining the selected data transmission mode prior to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising transmitting the data relevant to the anomalous incident via the transmission system to a ground-based aircraft operator network, via the selected transmission mode based on the determined priority level of the anomalous incident, wherein:
if the determined priority level is high priority, the selected transmission mode is selected from among one or more of Satellite Communication (SatCom), High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based on which transmission mode is currently available and enables transmission of the surveillance data within a shortest interval of time;
if the determined priority level is low priority, the selected transmission mode is Gatelink; and
if the determined priority level is intermediate priority, the selected transmission mode is selected from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based on criteria that include reduced expense of transmission mode and transmission within a selected interval.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the priority level is high priority, bypassing a Communication Management Unit (CMU) to communicate the data relevant to the anomalous incident and an instruction to transmit the data relevant to the anomalous incident directly to a communication system corresponding to the selected transmission mode.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a digest of the data relevant to the anomalous incident;
detecting, by the processing device, that the aircraft is in a status that makes available a selected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest, from among one or more of SatCom, High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF), ground-based broadband, and ground-based cellular, based on which transmission mode is currently available and enables transmission of the digest within a shortest interval of time; and
communicating, by the processing device, the digest to a transmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode in response to detecting that the aircraft is in the status that makes available the selected data transmission mode for transmitting the digest.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving a downlink request for the data relevant to the anomalous incident in response to the digest, wherein communicating the data relevant to the anomalous incident to the transmission system for transmission from the aircraft via the selected data transmission mode is further in response to the received downlink request.

12. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the received downlink request comprises an indication of a priority level for transmitting the data relevant to the anomalous incident, in response to the digest, and
wherein commu

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Gremmert Scott R
• Wilmot Stephen

Classifications

• G07C5/008 Primary

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• H04B7/18506

  Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service · CPC title

• G01S13/953

  mounted on aircraft · CPC title

• G01S17/933

  of aircraft or spacecraft · CPC title

• G08G5/26

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