1
EXTENSION OF AIRCRAFT TRACKING AND
POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION FROM MOVEMENT AREAS INTO NON-MOVEMENT AREAS
5
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED
APPLICATIONS
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/492,711, filed Jul. 25, 2006, and 10 incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/429, 926, filed on May 8, 2006, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/343,079, filed on Jan. 30, 2006, and 15 incorporated herein by reference; This application is also a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/342,289 filed Jan. 28, 2006 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/209,030, filed on Aug. 22, 20 2005, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/257,416, filed on Oct. 24, 2005, and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/203,823 filed Aug. 15, 25 2005 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 1/145,170 filed on Jun. 6, 2006 and incorporated herein by reference; This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/743,042 filed Dec. 23, 2003 30 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/638,524 filedAug. 12,2003 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/638,524 is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/516,215 35 filed Feb. 29, 2000 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 09/516,215 claims is a Non Prov. of Provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/123,170 filed Mar. 5, 1999 and incorporated herein by reference; application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. 40 patent application Ser. No. 10/319,725 filed Dec. 16, 2002 and incorporated herein by reference. Application Ser. No. 10/743,042 is a Non Prov. of Provisional U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/440,618 filed Jan. 17, 2003 and incorporated herein by reference. 45
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the field of aircraft and ground vehicle tracking and surveillance. The present invention is 50 directed toward methods, techniques and apparatus to extend the positive identification and tracking of aircraft from movement areas into the non-movement areas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 55
Prior Art air traffic control systems are geared up to track planes in the air and on runway surface areas to optimize efficiency and provide safety. Safety is assured by "separation" whereby air traffic controllers employ various proce- 60 dures and technologies to make sure that aircraft are physically separated by a minimum distance. At most airports, the responsibility of air traffic control starts and stops at the entrance or exit to the runway movement areas, which are taxiways and runways. 65
This is a practical matter, and in the non-movement areas, such as hangers, ramps, and aprons, aircraft movements and
2
separation are no longer the responsibility of air traffic control, but is the responsibility of other parties such as the airport itself, airlines, or other parties. The use of tracking technologies for air traffic control is therefore focused on the movement areas, not the non-movement areas, where there are limitations in aircraft tracking. Furthermore, many of the aircraft transmitting devices are switched off in non-movement areas exacerbating tracking problems in these areas.
Airport airside operations are conducted on movement areas and non-movement areas. Movement areas refer to the airport's runways and taxiways and non-movement areas refer to the aprons, ramps, maintenance facilities, de icing facilities and other areas. One of the main differences between movement and non-movement areas is that usually Air Traffic Control (ATC) is responsible for separation and safety of aircraft in the movement areas, whereas the airport or other organization is responsible for operations in the non-movement areas. This is exemplified at a typical airport where the airport's ramp management will authorize an aircraft for push back, and the aircraft will taxi to a point at the edge of the controlled movement area, and the pilot will then contact ATC by radio to request clearance to proceed into the movement area for departure.
Movement and non-movement areas are described the RNP report Development of Airport Surface Required Navigation Performance (RNP), by Rick Cassell, Alex Smith, and Dan Hicok, Rannoch Corporation, Alexandria, Va. (NASA/ CR-1999-209109, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. 23681 -2199, Prepared for Langley Research Center under Contract NAS1 19214), incorporated herein by reference. FIG. 1 is taken from the Cassell et al., reference and illustrates, in a simplified form, the airport movement areas, and, enclosed within dashed lines, the non-movement areas.
Since Air Traffic Control (ATC) is responsible for the movement areas, the air traffic control infrastructure is optimized to provide communications, navigation, and surveillance in the movement areas, not the non-movement areas. Therefore at a typical larger airport there exists aircraft tracking and identification systems providing generally good coverage over the movement parts of an airport, but generally not throughout the non-movement areas.
The technologies that are currently used at airports for tracking in the movement areas are classified as cooperative, primary active, and passive. Cooperative technologies interact with devices on the aircraft, primary active technologies do not interact but use a form of transmission to reflect signals from aircraft, and passive technologies are receive only. Passive can include reception of any electromagnetic, radio, or radar transmission from an aircraft including, but not limited to those for communication, navigation, and surveillance, including signals that may be reflected from the aircraft.
Cooperative technologies include transponder-based systems such as ADS-B and multilateration as described in the following papers, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Analysis of ADS-B, ASDE-3 and Multilateration Surveillance Performance—NASA Atlanta Demonstration Presented at the AIAA 17th Annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference in October, 1998.
Application of ADS-B for Airport Surface Surveillance, AIAA 17th Annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 1998.
Surveillance Monitoring of parallel Precision Approaches in a Free Flight Environment, AIAA 16th Annual Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 1997.
|
