Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08G—TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
  • G08G5/00—Traffic control systems for aircraft, e.g. air-traffic control [ATC]
  • G08G5/0073—Surveillance aids
  • G08G5/0086—Surveillance aids for monitoring terrain
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C23/00—Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
  • G01C23/005—Flight directors
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C5/00—Measuring height; Measuring distances transverse to line of sight; Levelling between separated points; Surveyors' levels
  • G01C5/005—Measuring height; Measuring distances transverse to line of sight; Levelling between separated points; Surveyors' levels altimeters for aircraft

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the technical sector of the electronics, specifically regarding the production of systems capable of preventing the danger of collision between vehicles, vessels, aeroplanes. In particular, it allows the pilots to land safely, in any weather condition, preventing possible collisions during flight. Background art
• This system was able to locate at least large targets, like a big city, but it was ineffective when the target was small.
• Loran Another known system is called Loran and is based on the geometric properties of the hyperbolas. At all points of a hyperbola the difference between the distances to two fixed points is a constant. Take a point A and calculate its distances to two fixed points, then deduct the smaller distance from the greater one: you'll find out that the value you got ' is the same both for a point B, for a point C and for any point of the hyperbola.
• the Loran system is constituted by a "master" station and other "slave” stations. Let's suppose that the master station occupies a fixed point of a hyperbola, or rather, of a family of hyperbolas, and it sends out a "beep" to the plane, which gives it back.
• a slave station hypothetically positioned at the second fixed point of the hyperbola, does the same.
• the system can say on which hyperbola the plane flies.
• the Loran system runs again the same process replacing the slave station with another one and identifying a second hyperbola.
• the improvement of this system in 1945 achieved an accuracy of 100 m.
• This invention principally aims at providing a device that completes the data supplied by the GPS with a database, in order to allow the pilot to move the vehicle even in conditions of deep darkness, anyway preventing the collision with other vehicles or obstacles.
• This system is certainly useful for any means of transport, in particular for vessels, as it can prevent stranding and collision against rocks and other land obstacles, as well as collisions between vessels .
• the advantages resulting from this invention essentially consist of the fact that it uses only the GPS data and, according to them, it doesn't only show the entrance into a dangerous zone, but even alerts at least 3 minutes in advance to the possible entrance into the dangerous zone; that, according to the current miniaturization capabilities, it's possible to install the device in any flying object, as this invention doesn't need a bulky two-way radio apparatus.
• an anti-collision device comprises :
• the device utilizes the data supplied by the GPS, completes them with a database of the earth' s surface and allows the pilot to move the vehicle or aircraft through the fog, the clouds or in the deepest night darkness, without using radio-frequency hyperbolic systems, so that it can be installed in any kind of flying object, vessel or other means of transport.
• this device has the function to calculate and foresee what is going to happen and alert the vehicle or the human operator to the imminent danger and convince him to move to another imaginary line, which means to a safer course.
• this device includes the following elements:
• a - input device for updating the database. It mainly consists of a GPS receiver, which acts as a sensor for the computer that processes data.
• the computer takes the GPS data (latitude, longitude, height) and creates an imaginary line, which is the one identified by the course of the vehicle or aircraft. It takes from a database all the geographical data concerning the land close to the vehicle or aircraft and the course, and inserts them in the imaginary line that is characterized by a Cartesian equation.
• a geographical point which is part of the land or of a surface of a mountain, is the solution of the equation of the imaginary line
• the device alerts the pilot flying in CFIT mode that the vehicle or aircraft is on collision course with an obstacle, calculating also the time estimated for the collision, which will generally be about 3-4 minutes.
• the system creates an imaginary line that represents the direction the vehicle or aircraft would have followed if it kept on flying in perpendicular line according to the data the GPS receiver has supplied in that moment to the computer of the device.
• the "imaginary line” is called “course”.
• This line can be easily created with the data supplied by the satellites of the GPS constellation, which are latitude, longitude and height, compared to the earth' s geoid, of the vehicle or human operator using a GPS receiver. Any other point of the earth's surface is represented by means of latitude, longitude and height.
• this system permits to calculate the altitude of the plane compared to the ground in an innovative way, which significantly improves the security of the flight.
• this system creates "geometric cones" that outline the shape of the mountains and that can be easily realized knowing the geographical point of the peak, a point at the base and the height of the mountain. So doing, the calculation is much simpler.
• the display unit shows all the data, preferably coloured, and in addition the imaginary line, thus giving the pilot a complete picture of the area where he's flying.
• the system alerts the driver that the vehicle is on collision course with an obstacle, it calculates the time estimated for the collision, which will generally be about 3-4 minutes.
• the process system comprises the following stages:
• the GPS receiver (1) receives the data from the satellites, processes them and then sends them to the computer in the form of geographical coordinates;
• the computer processing is carried out by a group of CPUs (2), whose number varies according to the complexity of the display unit, which work in parallel, since the parallel computation is the best way to process a large amount of data;
• the software creates, an imaginary line and gives the plane - in the case this system is used for the flight - its current altitude compared to the ground, analysing the geographical rectangle of a mile per a nautical mile above which in that moment the plane is.
• the processor takes from the GPS the data concerning latitude and longitude of the plane and compares them with all the geographical points that belong to the square of a nautical mile by side.
• the processor finds the point corresponding to the position of the aircraft, i.e. the point • that has the same latitude and longitude but a different altitude, reads its height, deducts it from the height supplied by the GPS and transmits it to the pilot.
• the formula to find the height of the aircraft knowing its geographical coordinates is: GPS altitude-point altitude.
• the processor when the processor reads this data, it stops its work and alerts the pilot by means of visual or sound signals that the plane is going to crash into a point of the earth's surface.
• the CPUs communicate with the pilot according to the display unit (4) depicted in Fig. 1.
• the system comprises an input device (5) with the purpose of updating the data contained in the Hard Disk, completing the architecture of the machine.
• the processor takes from the static Hard Disk all the latitudes ' and longitudes of the points that belong to the square of a nautical mile by side, and compares them with the data supplied by the
• the processor creates the imaginary line and takes the data from the Hard Disk regarding all the geographical coordinates, i.e. latitude, longitude and height, and inserts all of them in the imaginary line.
• the pilot reads a communication that has a delay compared with its current situation.
• the GPS receiver must process the data supplied by the satellites, then the CPUs must create the imaginary line and do calculations. Therefore, since the moment the aerial of the GPS receiver has received the signals sent by the satellites, until the moment the message is delivered to the pilot, some time has gone on.
• the parallel computation and the Hard Disks are used, aiming at accelerating computation capabilities, considering the high speed of a plane, because the parallel computation can deal with large amount of data in reasonable time.
• the software creates particular geometric figures starting from the data contained in the Hard Disk, everything comes out from the ground is transformed into cones according to Fig. 2.
• the aim of this transformation is to facilitate the processing.
• the CPUs take only these geometric figures and analyse if any of their points is the solution of the imaginary line, disregarding other portions of the geographical area where the aircraft is flying.
• the geometric figure (6) is clearly a cone, generated considering the geographical coordinates of the peak, a point at the base and the height of the mountain.
• This figure can be easily obtained knowing the geographical coordinates of the vertex, a point at the base and the height. Once this figure has been created by the processor, if the device doesn't perceive variations of altitude, it enters in the imaginary line only the points found by this figure, or the ones located at an altitude not under the criteria established by the software.
• the display unit consists of the following elements:
• the imaginary line is divided into numbers, 1-2-3-4-5, which do not represent a distance in miles, but the place where the plane will be in 1-2-3-4-5 minutes if it continues to follow the same course.
• the standard of measurement is the time. Obviously, according to the speed of the plane, the imaginary line will be longer or shorter, if the speed goes down the line will be longer, vice versa if the speed increases .
• the plane is at 5000 feet, on course 150. Let's suppose there is fog or clouds, or that it's night.
• the pilot looking at the display, already knows that if he veers to the right or left, it will crash into two mountains with peaks at higher altitudes than its current one, therefore he decides to move perpendicularly and pass between the two mountains.
• the plane is oblique compared with the symmetry axis of the display unit. This inclination has been displayed few seconds after the plane has veered, since the aircraft moved to a second imaginary line and the device needs some time to do calculations again. The veering has been displayed 8-12 seconds after it has started. The stylised plane will remain so inclined for other 20-30 seconds until it will return in its normal position.
• Fig. 1 shows the architecture of the machine. It's a simple diagram where the various parts are drawn with blocks that give the idea of how the system should work.
• the GPS receiver (1) takes the data from the satellites, processes them and then transmits them to the computer in the form of geographical coordinates.
• the computer processing is carried out by a group of CPUs (2), which work in parallel, and their number varies according to the complexity of the display unit.
• the software With the data supplied by the GPS, the software creates an imaginary line and gives the plane its current altitude compared to the ground, analysing the geographical rectangle of a mile per a nautical mile above, which the plane is in that moment.
• the processor When the processor reads this data, it stops its work and alerts the pilot by means of visual or sound signals that the plane is going to crash into a point of the earth's surface.
• the CPUs communicate with the pilot according to the display unit (4) depicted in Fig. 1.
• a last input device (5) with the purpose of updating the data contained in the Hard Disk, completes the architecture of the machine.
• FIG. 2 shows how the program that creates the cones delineating the mountains (6) will appear to the human eye.
• the invention does not project this figure as it will be useless for the pilot or the human operator (7) .
• Figs. 3 to 7 show how the display unit works on commercial jets or military planes. In particular, they are the illustration of a hypothetical case.
• the display of Fig. 3 consists of the following elements: stylized plane (8), imaginary line (9), mountains with relative altitudes (10, 10A) , goniometer of navigation (11).
• the imaginary line is divided into numbers, 1-2-3-4-5, which do not represent a distance in miles, but the place where the plane will be in 1-2-3-4-5 minutes if it continues to follow the same course.
• the display of Fig. 4 shows that the plane has two mountains (10, 10A) on its sides and even a 9000 feet high mountain (10B) in its front .
• the display of Fig. 5 shows the imaginary line (9) that has shorten a lot, since a part of it has disappeared and it's impossible to see because it penetrates through the mountain. At this point, the pilot begins to veer to the right.
• the display of Fig. 6 shows that the plane is oblique compared with the symmetry axis of the display. This inclination has been displayed few seconds after the plane has veered, since the aircraft moved to a second imaginary line and the device needs some time to do calculations again. The veering has been displayed 8-12 seconds after it has started. The stylised plane will remain so inclined for other 20-30 seconds until it will return in its normal position.
• the display of Fig. 7 shows that the plane has come back in its right position and has in front a red rectangle (12) that shows a runway.

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Cited By (3)

Citations (8)

• 2000
  • 2000-11-08 IT ITPI20000071 patent/IT1316577B1/it active
• 2001
  • 2001-10-24 WO PCT/IT2001/000540 patent/WO2002039407A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2001-10-24 AU AU2002215198A patent/AU2002215198A1/en not_active Abandoned

Patent Citations (9)

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