CN117690320A - Method and device for reducing TAWS harassment alarm based on TCAS - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method for reducing harassment alarms of a terrain awareness and warning system TAWS, which comprises the following steps: using an air collision avoidance system TCAS to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft in a horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft; generating a first signal in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft; and providing a first signal to the TAWS to inhibit the TAWS from issuing an alert signal. In addition, the invention also provides a corresponding device. The invention can effectively restrain harassment alarm of the TAWS GPWS mode 2 under the condition that the aircraft passes under the condition that the radio altitude is jumped.

Description

Method and device for reducing TAWS harassment alarm based on TCAS

Technical Field

The present invention relates to aircraft, and more particularly, to TCAS-based methods and apparatus for reducing TAWS nuisance alarms.

Background

Currently, most aircraft are equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system (English: terrain Awareness and Warning System, abbreviation: TAWS). The main function of TAWS is to avoid collision of an aircraft with the ground or ground barrier, and to provide a corresponding warning cue to the pilot when the aircraft is in dangerous proximity to the ground or ground barrier, so as to increase aircraft safety.

However, aircraft often experience radio altitude jumps due to the passage of the aircraft underneath during course operation and enter the TAWS approach warning system (english: ground Proximity Warning System, abbreviated: GPWS) functional mode 2 warning envelope, triggering a "TERRAIN TERRAIN (attention barrier )" warning.

For example, according to the prior art, TAWS determines aircraft position from aircraft longitude and latitude, GPS altitude, etc., while calculating aircraft ground clearance in conjunction with an internal terrain database. If the ground clearance is greater than 5000 feet, the TAWS suppresses GPWS and reactive wind shear functions for 60s when a large jump in radio altitude occurs. If the altitude from the ground is below 5000 feet, the TAWS cannot recognize that an aircraft is passing below, resulting in a TAWS nuisance warning condition.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for reducing TAWS nuisance alarms.

Disclosure of Invention

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In view of the above-described drawbacks of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to reduce TAWS nuisance alarms.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for reducing nuisance alarms of TAWS, the method comprising: using a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft in a horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft; generating a first signal in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below; and providing the first signal to the TAWS to suppress the TAWS from issuing an alert signal.

In one embodiment, the first range may preferably be 1 sea, and the second range may preferably be 2500 feet.

In one embodiment, the method may further comprise: generating a second signal in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and within a second range of aircraft below; and providing the second signal to the TAWS to enable the TAWS to issue an alert signal when a condition is met.

In one embodiment, the method may further comprise: the alert signal is transmitted to the unit alert system to provide visual and/or audible alerts to the unit.

In one embodiment, the first signal and the second signal may comprise different values of the same signal. For example, a discrete suppression signal may be provided, wherein the first signal may be a signal when the discrete suppression signal has a value of "1", and the second signal may be a signal when the discrete suppression signal has a value of "0".

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for reducing nuisance alarms of TAWS, the apparatus may comprise: an air collision avoidance system (TCAS) configured to: identifying whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below, and generating a first signal in response to identifying that other aircraft are present within the first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within the second range of the aircraft below; and a TAWS configured to: a first signal from the TCAS is received to inhibit the issuance of an alarm signal.

In one embodiment, the TCAS may be further configured to: generating a second signal in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and within a second range of aircraft below; and wherein the TAWS is further configured to: a second signal from the TCAS is received to issue an alarm signal when a condition is met.

In one embodiment, the apparatus may further comprise: a crew alerting system configured to receive alert signals from the TAWS to provide visual and/or audible alerts to the crew.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program is provided, which when executed by a processor performs the method of the invention.

By adopting the technical scheme provided by the invention, the harassment alarm of the TAWS GPWS mode 2 can be restrained under the condition that the aircraft passes under the condition that the radio altitude is jumped. Furthermore, without the limit of 5000 feet trigger height, GPWS or reactive wind shear harassment alarms caused by continuously small hops in radio altitude can be avoided. Meanwhile, other airplanes fly below the airplane when the function is restrained, and the forward-looking terrain warning function still works, so that the flight safety of the airplane can be ensured.

These and other features and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory only and are not restrictive of aspects as claimed.

Drawings

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.

Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for reducing harassment alarms of TAWS according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of using a TCAS to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft, according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method for reducing harassment alerts of TAWS according to one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 illustrates a general hardware device that may perform the methods of the present invention, according to one embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The features of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings.

As mentioned above, the GPWS and reactive wind shear functions of TAWS are primarily to provide ground strike protection during low-altitude flights of an aircraft. The GPWS warning caused by the aircraft passing below belongs to harassment warning, and frequent harassment warning can reduce the trust degree of a pilot on TAWS, so that the safety risk exists. For example, according to the prior art, TAWS determines aircraft position from aircraft longitude and latitude, GPS altitude, etc., while calculating aircraft ground clearance in conjunction with an internal terrain database. If the ground clearance is greater than 5000 feet, the TAWS suppresses GPWS and reactive wind shear functions for 60s when a large jump in radio altitude occurs. If the altitude from the ground is below 5000 feet, the TAWS cannot recognize that an aircraft is passing below, resulting in a TAWS nuisance warning condition.

The invention provides a suppression method for TAWS GPWS mode 2 harassment alarms caused by radio altitude jump when an airplane passes below. Other aircraft conditions within a range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a range below the aircraft are identified by the TCAS. When an aircraft is present within this range, the TCAS sends a discrete suppression signal to the TAWS. If there are all other aircraft within range, the signal is continuously set to 1. After the TAWS receives the signal, the GPWS function and the reactive wind shear function are inhibited until the signal is set to 0. Thereby, nuisance alarms of the TAWS GPWS mode 2 can be effectively restrained under the condition that the aircraft passes under the condition that the jump of the radio altitude occurs.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 100 for reducing nuisance alarms of TAWS according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that fig. 1 is for illustrative purposes only and not limiting, and that apparatus 100 may include more or fewer components than shown in fig. 1.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 100 may include a collision avoidance system (English: traffic Collision Avoidance System, abbreviation: TCAS) 110. The TCAS is a group of computer systems installed on medium and large-sized aircrafts and is used for avoiding the aircrafts from colliding with each other in the air. Most of the civil airliners today have an air collision avoidance system function. The TCAS can display the distance and heading of the adjacent aircraft from the own aircraft, the extent of the display can be determined by the pilot, and if there is a risk of collision with the distance or heading of the adjacent aircraft, the TCAS can alert the pilot with sound and/or display.

In this embodiment, the TCAS110 may be configured to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft. For example, the first range may include 1 sea, 2 sea, 4 sea, or any other suitable value. The second range may include 2000 feet, 2500 feet, 3000 feet, or any other suitable value.

Fig. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram 200 of using a TCAS to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft, according to one embodiment of the invention. As exemplarily shown in fig. 2, the first range may be 1 sea-in (NM) and the second range may be 2500 feet (ft). Thus, TCAS can be used to identify whether other aircraft (e.g., one aircraft, two aircraft, or any number of aircraft) are present within 1 seashore of the aircraft horizontal and within 2500 feet below the aircraft.

Returning to fig. 1, tcas110 may be further configured to: a first signal is generated in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below. The first signal may be used to suppress TAWS from generating GPWS or reactive wind shear harassment alarms. On the other hand, if no other aircraft is identified as being within the first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within the second range below the aircraft, the TCAS110 may be further configured to generate a second signal. The second signal may enable the GPWS function and reactive wind shear function of the TAWS such that the TAWS generates an alert signal when conditions are met (e.g., generates a TAWS GPWS function mode 2 alert signal when a large jump in radio altitude occurs). In one embodiment, the first signal and the second signal may comprise different values of the same signal. For example, in the event that it is identified that there are other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and a second range below the aircraft, the TCAS110 may generate a discrete suppression signal (i.e., a first signal) set to a value of "1"; while TCAS110 may generate a discrete inhibit signal (i.e., a second signal) set to a value of "0" without identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and a second range below the aircraft.

The apparatus 100 may further comprise a TAWS120. In one embodiment, the TAWS120 may be configured to receive the first signal and/or the second signal described above from the TCAS110 to determine whether to refrain from generating the alert signal based on the first signal and/or the second signal. For example, when the first signal is received, the TAWS120 may be configured to disable the GPWS function and the reactive wind shear function of the TAWS to inhibit generation of the alert signal. When the second signal is received, the TAWS120 may be configured to enable the GPWS function and the reactive wind shear function of the TAWS to generate and issue an alert signal when the condition is met.

In an optional embodiment, the apparatus 100 may also include a crew alerting system 130. The crew alerting system 130 may be configured to receive alert signals from the TAWS120 to provide visual and/or audible alerts to the crew. Examples of crew alerting system 130 may include, but are not limited to: displays, speakers, light emitting diodes, etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method 300 for reducing harassment alerts of TAWS according to one embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment, the method 300 may be performed by the apparatus 100 described above with reference to fig. 1. In another embodiment, the method 300 may also be performed by a computer program stored on a computer readable medium. Of course, method 300 may also be performed by any other suitable software, hardware, or combination of software and hardware.

At block 310, the method 300 may include: TCAS is used to identify whether other aircraft are present in a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and in a second range below the aircraft. For example, the TCAS110 shown in fig. 1 may be used to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft. For example, the first range may include 1 sea, 2 sea, 4 sea, or any other suitable value. The second range may include 2000 feet, 2500 feet, 3000 feet, or any other suitable value.

At block 320, the method 300 may include: a first signal is generated in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below. For example, the TCAS110 shown in fig. 1 may generate the first signal in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below. The first signal may be used to suppress TAWS from generating GPWS or reactive wind shear harassment alarms.

At block 330, the method 300 may include: the first signal is provided to the TAWS to suppress the TAWS from issuing an alert signal. For example, the TCAS110 shown in fig. 1 may provide the first signal to the TAWS120 shown in fig. 1 to disable the GPWS function and the reactive wind shear function of the TAWS, thereby suppressing the TAWS120 from generating and issuing an alert signal.

In one embodiment, the method 300 may further comprise: generating a second signal in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and within a second range of aircraft below; and providing the second signal to the TAWS to enable the TAWS to issue an alert signal when a condition is met. For example, in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of aircraft horizontal and within a second range of aircraft below, TCAS110 shown in fig. 1 may generate a second signal and provide the second signal to TAWS120 shown in fig. 1 to enable TAWS120 to generate and issue an alert signal when a large jump in radio altitude occurs.

In one embodiment, the method 300 may further comprise: the alert signal is transmitted to the unit alert system to provide visual and/or audible alerts to the unit. For example, the TAWS120 shown in fig. 1 may transmit alert signals generated by it to the crew alerting system 130 shown in fig. 1 to provide various visual and/or audible alerts to the crew.

Fig. 4 illustrates a general hardware device 400 that may perform the methods of the present invention, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 4, a hardware device 400 will now be described, the hardware device 400 being an example of a hardware device applicable to aspects of the present disclosure. Hardware device 400 may be any machine configured to perform processes and/or calculations, and may be, but is not limited to, a workstation, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant, a smart phone, an on-board device, or any combination thereof.

Hardware device 400 may include elements that are connected to bus 402 or in communication with bus 402, possibly via one or more interfaces. For example, hardware device 400 may include a bus 402, one or more processors 404, one or more input devices 406, and one or more output devices 408. The one or more processors 404 may be any type of processor and may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors and/or one or more special purpose processors (such as a special purpose processing chip). Input device 406 may be any type of device that can input information into a hardware device and may include, but is not limited to, a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, a microphone, and/or a remote control. Output device 408 may be any type of device that can present information and may include, but is not limited to, a display, a speakerA video/audio output terminal, a vibrator, and/or a printer. Hardware device 400 may also include a non-transitory storage device 410 or be connected to non-transitory storage device 410, which non-transitory storage device 410 may be any storage device that is non-transitory and that can enable data storage, and may include, but is not limited to, a disk drive, an optical storage device, solid state storage, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, an optical disk or any other optical medium, ROM (read only memory), RAM (random access memory), cache memory, and/or any other memory chip or memory cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a computer may read data, instructions, and/or code. The non-transitory storage device 410 may be separable from the interface. The non-transitory storage device 410 may have data/instructions/code for implementing the methods and steps described above. Hardware device 400 may also include a communication device 412. The communication device 412 may be any type of device or system capable of enabling communication with external equipment and/or a network and may include, but is not limited to, a modem, a network card, an infrared communication device, such as bluetooth ^TM Devices, 1302.11 devices, wiFi devices, wiMax devices, wireless communication devices and/or chipsets such as cellular communication facilities, and the like.

Bus 402 can include, but is not limited to, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Hardware device 400 may also include a working memory 414, where working memory 414 may be any type of working memory that may store instructions and/or data useful for the operation of processor 404, and may include, but is not limited to, random access memory and/or read-only memory devices.

Software elements may reside in the working memory 414 including, but not limited to, an operating system 416, one or more application programs 418, drivers, and/or other data and code. Instructions for performing the above-described methods and steps may be included in one or more application programs 418. Executable code or source code of instructions of the software elements may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium (such as storage device 410 described above) and may be read into working memory 414, possibly by compilation and/or installation. Executable code or source code for the instructions of the software elements may also be downloaded from a remote location.

From the above embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be implemented by software having necessary hardware, or by hardware, firmware, or the like. Based on such understanding, embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in part in software. The computer software may be stored in a readable storage medium such as a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, or flash memory of a computer. The computer software includes a series of instructions to cause a computer (e.g., a personal computer, a service station, or a network terminal) to perform a method according to respective embodiments of the present disclosure, or a portion thereof.

Throughout this specification, reference has been made to "one example" or "an example" that means that a particular described feature, structure, or characteristic is included in at least one example. Thus, the use of such phrases may involve more than one example. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more examples.

One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the examples may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, resources, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, resources, or operations have not been shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of these examples.

While examples and applications have been illustrated and described, it should be understood that these examples are not limited to the precise configurations and resources described above. Various modifications, changes, and variations apparent to those skilled in the art may be made in the arrangement, operation, and details of the methods and systems disclosed herein without departing from the scope of the claimed examples.

Claims (10)

1. A method for reducing nuisance alerts of terrain awareness and warning systems TAWS, the method comprising:

using an air collision avoidance system TCAS to identify whether other aircraft are present within a first range of the aircraft in a horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft;

generating a first signal in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft; and

the first signal is provided to the TAWS to suppress the TAWS from issuing an alert signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first range is 1 sea, and the second range is 2500 feet.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a second signal in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below; and

the second signal is provided to the TAWS to enable the TAWS to issue an alert signal when a condition is met.

4. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

the alert signal is transmitted to a unit alert system to provide visual and/or audible alerts to the unit.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the first signal and the second signal comprise different values of the same signal.

6. An apparatus for reducing nuisance alerts of terrain awareness and warning systems TAWS, the apparatus comprising:

an air collision avoidance system TCAS configured to:

identifying whether other aircraft are present in a first range of aircraft horizontal directions and in a second range of aircraft below, and

generating a first signal in response to identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range below the aircraft; and

a terrain awareness and warning system TAWS configured to:

the first signal from the TCAS is received to suppress the emission of an alarm signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the TCAS is further configured to: generating a second signal in response to not identifying the presence of other aircraft within a first range of the aircraft horizontal direction and within a second range of the aircraft below; and wherein the TAWS is further configured to: the second signal from the TCAS is received to issue an alert signal when a condition is met.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a crew alerting system configured to receive the alert signal from the TAWS to provide visual and/or audible alerts for a crew.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first range is 1 sea, and the second range is 2500 feet.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a processor, performs the method of any of claims 1-5.