Detailed Description
The scheme of the application relates to a graphical aircraft wind speed and direction indicating scheme, and provides a new method and a new system for indicating wind speed and direction on an aircraft cockpit display, so that a unit can know wind speed and direction information more intuitively and conveniently and assists in flying operation.
First, an example flow chart of a method for graphically indicating wind speed and direction on an aircraft cockpit display according to one embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. 1.
As shown, first, instep 110, the system first displays a compass graphic as a background map, the compass is circular, and 8 typical directions (0 °, 45 °, 90 °, 135 °, 180 °, 225 °, 270 °, 315 °, 360 °) are marked on the wind direction dial at the outer circle of the compass graphic as a basic scale.
While on the inner circle of the compass the current aircraft nose direction (heading) can be marked using, for example, a small aircraft icon.
The reason for adopting the compass concept is that:
firstly, the method is consistent with the indication of the existing radio navigation station, and ambiguity caused by multiple modes of the airplane is avoided;
secondly, if the functions are required to be expanded subsequently, the navigation station can be combined for indication, so that multifunctional indication is realized.
By providing a compass graph as a background graph and presenting wind speed and wind direction data and a corresponding graphical representation based on the compass in each subsequent step, the display of the wind speed and wind direction information is clearer and more visualized.
In some embodiments, the compass may include two modes of operation, which may indicate either a true wind direction or a switched mode to indicate a relative wind direction depending on the mode. In different modes, the outer circle scale has different meanings. Specifically, when in the "true wind" mode, the 0 scale indicates the true north direction, and in the "relative wind" mode, the 0 scale indicates the handpiece direction. Two working modes are adopted, so that the switching of the machine set personnel can be more convenient as required.
Subsequently, at step 120, the system may receive wind speed and wind direction data from an external data source. The external data source may be, for example, a Flight Management System (FMS) and/or an Inertial Reference System (IRS). In the priority of use of the data source, the flight management system > the inertial reference system, that is, the inertial reference system is generally adopted as the data source only when the flight management system works abnormally.
The reason is that the original wind speed and wind direction data are output by an Inertial Reference System (IRS), the aircraft generally has at least 2-3 sets of IRS, and if 3 sets of IRS exist, the Flight Management System (FMS) can simultaneously receive the data output by the 3 sets of IRS, and then outputs comprehensive data after internal calculation so as to eliminate individual difference as much as possible. In this case, if there is a problem with 1 IRS, the output result of FMS will not be affected in principle. Unless the FMS system itself fails, then the system will fall back on its own, requiring the data from the IRS output to be used secondarily.
In step 130, wind speed and wind direction values are displayed on the compass, based on the received wind speed and wind direction data.
For example, the values of the wind speed and the wind direction may be displayed in a wind speed and wind direction value display area below the small airplane icon of the inner circle. The displayed values of wind speed and wind direction may be continuously updated based on newly received wind speed and wind direction data to reflect the current wind speed and wind direction.
Moreover, in some embodiments, to be able to distinguish between different data sources, the system may identify the displayed wind speed and direction values in differentiated colors, for example, when the data source is a flight management system, the displayed wind speed and direction values may be green (representing that the data source is a flight management system, and the wind speed and direction values are safe and reliable); and when the data source is an inertial reference system, the displayed value is magenta (representing that the data source is an inertial reference system at this time, and the wind speed and direction values are not verified by the FMS system and may be problematic).
Next, in step 140, a corresponding wind sock graphic (also referred to as a "wind direction indication arrow") is generated and displayed on the compass, based on the received wind speed and wind direction data.
In this scenario, the wind direction arrow is represented by a visual icon of the windsock, which extends from the windsock mouth (inner circle) (indicating "wind coming") to the windsock tail end (outer circle), and finally the arrow points to the corresponding scale of the windsock dial on the outer circle, indicating "wind going". The wind direction can be visually and clearly represented by the wind direction bag, the wind direction bag is an visualized icon close to a wind direction bag in reality, and the problem that ambiguity easily occurs in existing direction representation is solved.
The scale pointed by the arrow of the wind direction bag is determined according to the received wind direction data, and can change the direction continuously along with the newly received wind direction data so as to reflect the real-time change of the wind direction.
And the windsock itself may be hollow.
In some preferred embodiments, however, the body of the windsock may also be filled to reflect more information. For example, the filling form may include the following two ways:
1) the windsock can be filled with one color in an equal proportion of transparency depending on the wind speed. For example, gray may be used for padding. When the wind speed is 0 knots, the transparency of the gray filling is 100% (i.e. unfilled, completely transparent), whereas as the wind speed increases, the transparency of the gray filling becomes less and less, the windsock as a whole assumes a more and more gray color, until the transparency remains 0 when the wind speed exceeds a certain limit (e.g. XX knots, which can be set as required). The grey color above is merely an illustration, and the pilot or designer may choose other colors to fill in according to his or her own needs.
Therefore, the wind speed can be easily and simultaneously estimated while the wind direction is checked only by observing the depth of the filling color of the wind direction bag, and the wind speed value displayed by the inner ring of the compass does not need to be specially noticed, so that the scheme is more visual.
2) The body of the wind sock can be filled with different colors according to the wind speed. For example, when the windsock body is colorless, the wind speed is 0 knots, and when the body turns yellow, the wind speed reaches YY knots, and when the wind speed continues to increase to XX knots, the filling color turns red (XX knots and YY knots, which can be set as needed). The selection of the different fill colors described above is merely exemplary, and in fact, the technician or pilot may freely match the respective wind speed thresholds and the respective colors as desired.
The basic method of graphically indicating the wind speed and direction is completed.
A graphical representation interface of an example wind speed and direction in the form of the compass described above according to one embodiment of the present application is shown in fig. 2. As shown, the circular compass provides a wind direction dial marked with eight basic scales on its outer rim. A small aircraft icon is displayed on its inner circle with the nose position corresponding to the heading. And a wind speed/wind direction display area is arranged below the airplane icon, so that the current wind speed and wind direction numerical information can be displayed. Between the inner and outer rings, a wind direction indicating arrow (also called "wind sock") in the form of a wind sock is displayed, the arrow end of which points to the position of a certain scale (here 90 °) of the wind dial to graphically indicate the wind direction.
The number of basic scales on the wind direction dial is generally 8, which is not suitable for too many, and small scales without numerical value marks (such as small scales marked once a degree) can be further divided among the basic scales. The specific orientation of the windsock corresponds to the actual wind direction received, with an accuracy in the range of about 5 deg. taking into account the wind direction data jitter. That is, the windsock may point to these 8 basic scales when pointed specifically, but may also point to other non-scale marked locations, such as 65 °, 140 °, 260 °, 330 °, and so on. For example, assuming a wind direction of 65 °, although the scale has no corresponding value at this time (since it is not a basic scale), the pilot can learn the wind direction from the small scale indicated by the arrow of the windsock. And specific numerical values are displayed in a wind speed and wind direction numerical value display area of the inner ring of the compass.
It will be appreciated by the skilled person that the exemplary directions may not be limited to these eight basic scales, but may also comprise more or less basic scales. This can be noted according to flight requirements.
It should be understood that the method provides only one of the most basic graphical indication schemes and that various improvements may exist based thereon.
For example, as previously mentioned, the compass may have two modes of operation, a "true wind" mode or a "relative wind" mode. The pilot can switch between the two working modes according to own habits and requirements. The graphical representation of the wind speed and direction also differs when different modes of operation are employed.
In particular, the method may further comprise the step of selecting a compass mode of operation, for example, the pilot may select between a "true wind" mode or a "relative wind" mode.
1) If the current operation mode is selected to be the "true wind direction" mode, the compass graphics are displayed instep 110, so that the head of the small airplane icon on the inner circle of the compass is always directed upwards, and the dial on the outer circle is correspondingly rotated according to the heading of the airplane, so that the 0 scale is always directed towards the true north direction. How much the dial rotates depends on the heading of the aircraft. At the moment, the scale over against the nose is a course angle, namely, the scale of the dial plate corresponds to the course of the airplane in the true wind direction. The arrows of the windsock are indicated in terms of wind direction degrees, for example, if the wind direction data indicates that a true north wind is blowing (a true north wind is the wind coming from the true north), then in the windsock pattern used, the large mouth corresponds to the incoming wind and the small tip corresponds to the outgoing wind, so that the large mouth is facing 0 and the small mouth 180 degrees.
2) If the current working mode is the 'relative wind direction' mode, when the compass graph is displayed instep 110, the head of the small airplane icon on the inner circle of the compass is always directed upwards, and meanwhile, the 0 scale of the dial on the outer circle is also always directed upwards, so that rotation does not occur, namely, the scale of the dial corresponds to the airplane head. At this time, the arrow of the windsock indicates that the direction is to be simultaneously related to the heading of the aircraft in addition to being based on the wind direction data. The basic formula for calculating the direction indicated by the arrow of the windsock is "wind direction-heading", i.e. for example when the wind direction is north wind and the heading of the aircraft is 90 °, then the wind direction is sideways wind for the aircraft, so that the windsock is large-opening towards 270 ° and small-tip towards 90 °, i.e. as shown in fig. 2.
It should be understood that this is not to say that both modes of operation are necessary, and indeed only one of the modes of operation is provided to enable the patterning scheme of the present application.
It should also be understood that the method flow shown in fig. 1 is continuously executed during the operation phase of the aircraft, i.e., the windsock arrows and the displayed wind speed and direction values are continuously updated to reflect the wind speed and direction experienced by the aircraft in real time.
An example environmental block diagram of a system for graphically indicating wind speed and direction on an aircraft cockpit display according to one embodiment of the present application is shown in FIG. 3
As shown, the system 330 includes, among other things, adata source selector 331, abackground display module 332, a wind speed and direction value display module 333, a windsock generation anddisplay module 334, anoutput module 335, and anoperational mode selector 336.
It should be understood that the various modules may be implemented by programming existing systems on the aircraft, or by programming firmware, software, or hardware. The various modules may communicate information with each other via wired/wireless communication links. Here, detailed description is omitted.
First, as previously described, the system 330 may receive wind speed and direction data from external data sources, such as the Flight Management System (FMS)310 and/or the Inertial Reference System (IRS) 320. Thus, to enable selection between external data sources, the system 330 provides adata source selector 331.
Data source selector 331 is configured for switching between flight management system 310 andinertial reference system 320 to receive wind speed and direction data therefrom. It should be understood that thedata source selector 331 is optional because thedata source selector 331 is provided only to facilitate manual selection of data sources by the pilot, but in practice the system may switch data sources automatically, for example, depending on the priority of the data sources (priority of flight management system > priority of inertial reference system). Specifically, the system generally has the flight management system 310 as the default data source, that is, the system will use theinertial reference system 320 as the data source only when the flight management system is operating abnormally.
Thebackground display module 332 is configured to display a compass graph as a background map, the compass graph is a circle, and 8 typical directions (0 °, 45 °, 90 °, 135 °, 180 °, 225 °, 270 °, 315 °, 360 °) are marked on the dial of the outer circle. And the current aircraft nose direction (heading) can be marked on its inner circle using, for example, a small aircraft icon.
A wind speed and direction value display module 333 configured to display wind speed and direction values on the compass. For example, the values of the wind speed and wind direction may be displayed below a small airplane icon in the inner circle. The displayed values of wind speed and wind direction may be continuously updated based on newly received wind speed and wind direction data to reflect the current wind speed and wind direction.
A windsock generation anddisplay module 334 configured to generate and display a corresponding windsock graphic on the compass based on the received wind speed and wind direction data. In this scheme, the wind direction arrow is represented by the visual icon of the windsock, which extends from the windsock mouth (inner circle) (indicating "wind coming") to the windsock tail end (outer circle), and finally the arrow points to the corresponding scale of the dial of the outer circle, indicating "wind going". The scale pointed by the arrow of the wind direction bag is determined according to the received wind direction data, and can change the direction continuously along with the newly received wind direction data so as to reflect the real-time change of the wind direction.
Anoutput module 335 configured to provide the data generated by the various modules in the system 330 to thecockpit display 340 for displaying the corresponding graphics and data.
In a preferred embodiment, the system 330 further includes an operatingmode selector 336. The operatingmode selector 336 is configured to enable the pilot to switch between two operating modes, a "true wind" mode and a "relative wind" mode of the compass. The pilot can switch between the two working modes according to own habits and requirements. The graphical representation of the wind speed and direction also differs when different modes of operation are employed. For a detailed description of these two modes of operation, reference is made to the description above. It should be understood that this is not to say that both modes of operation are necessarily provided, and indeed only one of the modes of operation may be provided to enable the patterning scheme of the present application. The provision of multiple compass operating modes is merely to enable the pilot to have the ability to select a mode that is more in line with his habits and needs.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Persons skilled in the relevant art(s) will recognize that various changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined by the appended claims. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention disclosed herein should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.