Apparatus and method for interactive analysis of aviation data
Apparatus and method for receiving, processing and interactively displaying real-time air traffic data representative of the movement of aircraft throughout an airspace. The apparatus is an interactive data visualization framework which provides an immediately visualized aviation-oriented insights, with a focus on evaluating the deviations among flights by route, type, airport, and aircraft performance. The apparatus includes utilities for such as capacity planning, flight route prediction, and fuel consumption analysis.
1 . An apparatus, comprising:
a processor;
a memory that stores computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform operations to determine a volatility of a route flown by an aircraft moving through three-dimensional airspace, comprising:
determining planned flight path of the aircraft as a polyline P that consists of n+1 segments {L 1 , L 2 . . . L n+1 }, wherein n is a number of waypoints in a planned flight track between a departure location and a destination location;
determining an actual flight path of the aircraft between the departure location and the destination location;
determining a deviation between the actual flight path and the planned flight path for each of the n+1 segments of the polyline P;
aggregating the deviation for each of the n+1 segments of the polyline P into a volatility index that is representative of an efficiency of the actual flight path; and
using the volatility index to determine optimal flight routes to reduce fuel consumption or reduce flight delays.
2 . A method for determining a volatility of a route flown by an aircraft moving through three-dimensional airspace, comprising:
determining planned flight path of the aircraft as a polyline P that consists of n+1 segments {L 1 , L 2 . . . L n+1 }, wherein n is a number of waypoints in a planned flight track between a departure location and a destination location;
determining an actual flight path of the aircraft between the departure location and the destination location;
determining a deviation between the actual flight path and the planned flight path for each of the n+1 segments of the polyline P;
aggregating the deviation for each of the n+1 segments of the polyline P into a volatility index that is representative of an efficiency of the actual flight path; and
using the volatility index to determine optimal flight routes to reduce fuel consumption or reduce flight delays.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising for each flight track record in the actual flight path, comparing a location of the aircraft to the planned flight path by latitude, longitude and altitude at a particular time.
4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising comparing, based on great circle distance, the distance between a point on the actual flight path and the planned flight path using 3D spherical geometries.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein given a point p=(x, y) on the actual flight path and a line L associate with the planned flight path is defined as follows:
dist
(
p
,
L
)
=
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
(
x
e
-
x
s
)
·
(
y
s
-
y
)
-
(
x
s
-
x
)
·
(
y
e
-
y
s
)
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
(
x
e
-
x
s
)
2
+
(
y
e
-
y
s
)
2
,
wherein a start-point is L s =(x s , y s ), an end-point is L e =(x e , y e ), and a distance between p and L is dist(p, L).
6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the distance between a point p on the actual flight path and P in the planned flight path is determined by:
dist( p, P )=min L i ∈P (dist( p, L i )).
7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the volatility index (VOLX) is determined by:
VOLX( f )=aggr P∈f pt (dist( p, P )),
wherein, aggr( ) is an aggregation function comprising at least one of average, sum, min, and standard deviation.
8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising factoring the VLX by an average higher altitude of the actual flight path, wherein VOLX is further determined by:
VOLAX
(
f
)
=
VOLX
(
f
)
×
avg
p
∈
f
pt
(
p
.
alt
)
999
wherein p.alt is the altitude of the point p, and wherein the altitude coefficient is normalized between 0 and 1.
9 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining different types of distances of the actual flight path that consist of:
an actual distance that the aircraft actually traverses, an As-the-Crow-Flies (ACF) distance that is a length of a straight line between the departure location and the destination location, and a route distance that is a length of the polyline P.
10 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the distance between a given pair of geographical points s and e is defined as follows:
dist( s, e )=[ a cos(cos( s lat )·cos( e lat )·cos( s lng )·cos( e lng )+cos( s lat )·sin( e lat )·cos( s lng )·sin( e lng )+sin( s lat )·sin( e lat ))]× r,
wherein the lat and lng subscripts indicate the latitude and longitude components of points, respectively, and wherein r is the earth radius.
11 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining fuel burn and delays caused by the deviations in accordance with the aggregating of the deviation for each of the n+1 segments.
12 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor executing instructions further comprising determining fuel burn and delays caused by the deviations in accordance with the aggregating of the deviation for each of the n+1 segments.
13 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor executing instructions further comprising for each flight track record in the actual flight path, comparing a location of the aircraft to the planned flight path by latitude, longitude and altitude at a particular time.
14 . The apparatus of claim 1 the processor executing instructions, further comprising comparing, based on great circle distance, the distance between a point on the actual flight path and the planned flight path using 3D spherical geometries.
15 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein given a point p=(x, y) on the actual flight path and a line L associated with the planned flight path is defined as follows:
dist
(
p
,
L
)
=
❘
"\[LeftBracketingBar]"
(
x
e
-
x
s
)
·
(
y
s
-
y
)
-
(
x
s
-
x
)
·
(
y
e
-
y
s
)
❘
"\[RightBracketingBar]"
(
x
e
-
x
s
)
2
+
(
y
e
-
y
s
)
2
,
wherein a start-point is L s =(x s , y s ), an end-point is L e =(x e , y e ), and a distance between p and L is dist(p, L).
16 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the distance between a point p on the actual flight path and P in the planned flight path is determined by:
dist( p, P )=min L i ∈P (dist( p, L i )).
17 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the volatility index (VOLX) is determined by:
VOLX( f )=aggr P∈f pt (dist( p, P )),
wherein, aggr( ) is an aggregation function comprising at least one of average, sum, min, and standard deviation.
18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , the processor executing instructions further comprising factoring the VLX by an average higher altitude of the actual flight path, wherein VOLX is further determined by:
VOLAX
(
f
)
=
VOLX
(
f
)
×
avg
p
∈
f
pt
(
p
.
alt
)
999
wherein p.alt is the altitude of the point p, and wherein the altitude coefficient is normalized between 0 and 1.
19 . The apparatus of claim 1 , the processor executing instructions further comprising determining different types of distances of the actual flight path that consist of:
an actual distance that the aircraft actually traverses, an As-the-Crow-Flies (ACF) distance that is a length of a straight line between the departure location and the destination location, and a route distance that is a length of the polyline P.
20 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the distance between a given pair of geographical points s and e is defined as follows:
dist( s, e )=[ a cos(cos( s lat )·cos( e lat )·cos( s lng )·cos( e lng )+cos( s lat )·sin( e lat )·cos( s lng )·sin( e lng )+sin( s lat )·sin( e lat ))]× r,
wherein the lat and lng subscripts indicate the latitude and longitude components of points, respectively, and wherein r is the earth radius.