Device, system and method for emergency landing site identification, selection, routing, and confirmation

Inventors

Richards, Nathan Douglas • Bateman, Alec JacobDevine • Hook, Loyd

Assignees

Barron Associates Inc

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system, device and method for emergency landing assistance that leverages intelligent planning along with existing and acquired information to maximize the likelihood of locating and confirming a safe emergency landing site for an aircraft. Embodiments can determine candidate landing sites based upon input from one or more GIS data sources, airport data sources and sensor data. Embodiments can include a candidate landing site identification component, a candidate site evaluation component, a candidate site selection component, a route planning component and/or a real-time site assessment component. Determining a preferred route can be based on the total risk and/or suitability assessment for one or more candidate landing sites. In various embodiments, notifications such as recommended courses of action can be issued based upon a suitability assessment.

Core Innovation

The emergency landing assistance system assesses aircraft landing sites by identifying one or more candidate landing sites based on received data comprising at least one of GIS data and airport data. For each candidate landing site, the system assesses a total risk associated with the candidate landing site, where the total risk comprises an onboard risk and an on-ground risk. The system then identifies a preferred route comprising a selected landing site from the identified candidate landing sites.

After selecting the landing site, the system generates a suitability assessment of the selected landing site based on received updated data related to the selected landing site. The suitability assessment supports issuing a notification comprising a recommended course of action based on the suitability assessment. The notification comprises an update on a map displayed on a user interface, where the update comprises one or more preferred routes.

The system supports use of updated data from at least one sensor to determine suitability for the first landing site and to issue notifications with routes that include relative risks and/or relative suitability assessments. Candidate site assessment and preferred-route identification support continued selection of preferred routes when additional geographic map segments and additional candidate landing sites are identified based on additional received data. The system can also identify a preferred route based on receiving an automated selection based on the total risk.

Claims Coverage

The provided independent claims cover four main inventive feature clusters: candidate landing site identification from received GIS and airport/map-segment data; risk-based assessment using a total risk that includes onboard and on-ground risk; preferred-route selection and map/UI-based notification updates; and updated-data-driven suitability assessment using updated sensor/associated data, including binary suitability threshold and threshold-based route selection for sensor data collection.

Across the independent claims, the core coverage is a workflow where candidate landing sites are identified from received GIS and/or airport data, each candidate is evaluated with a total risk that includes onboard and on-ground risk, a preferred route is determined using the risk, a suitability assessment is generated from received updated data, and a notification updates a map UI with preferred routes and recommended course of action. Variations include automated preferred-route selection, threshold-based route identification for sensor data collection, and selection of preferred routes across additional geographic map segments based on additional received data.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications