Patents by Inventor Tiffany D. Williamson

Tiffany D. Williamson has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11037455
    Abstract: A method for oversteering an aircraft to perform an optimal turn along a taxiway includes determining a learning environment based on at least one of a taxiway width, a taxiway centerline, and a taxiway radius of curvature, selecting an action for an agent in the environment, determining a reward for the determined environment and the selected action, repeating the steps of selecting the action and determining the reward to determine a model supporting an optimal turn, and using the determined model to at least one of determine control signals for an aircraft and providing guidance to a user to perform the optimal turn along the taxiway. The agent is an aircraft having a minimum turn radius. The action includes a nose wheel displacement and a nose wheel angle. The reward is determined based on a distance between a path of one or more landing gear wheels and a path of the taxiway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Sarah Barber, Hannah C. Lehman, Felix B. Turcios, Tiffany D. Williamson, Bradley R. Thompson, Christopher Truong
  • Patent number: 9711053
    Abstract: An offscreen traffic information indicator system includes signal receivers for receiving traffic messages from proximate air and ground vehicles and a traffic indicator for determining the positions of the host aircraft and the proximate vehicles based on the traffic messages. Based on the locations of the host aircraft and proximate vehicles and their proximity to airport runways, the traffic indicator may designate runways as relevant runways (or receive relevant runway designations from the flight management system of the host aircraft) and designate proximate vehicles as relevant to the host aircraft. A display unit may display, along with a dynamic map of a region near the host aircraft, relevant runway indicators for relevant runways within the mapped region and offscreen traffic indicators for relevant aircraft positioned outside the mapped region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Tiffany D. Williamson, David J. Inman, Roger L. Yum, Randy H. Jacobson, Thomas C. Olson, Bernard S. McCaffrey, Michael R. Goodloe, Christopher A. Scherer
  • Patent number: 8462019
    Abstract: A present novel and non-trivial system, apparatus, and method for generating runway visual aids on an aircraft display unit, where such visual aids could be comprised of surface markings corresponding to the runway. Navigation data and runway data may be provided to an image generating processor which, in turn, generates an image data set representative of at least one visual aid corresponding to one runway located in the scene outside the aircraft. The intensity or brightness of a visual aid could vary when the aircraft is operating on the approach phase of flight. The variation of such intensity could be defined as a function of the navigation data and the data representative of one or more waypoints. The image data set may be provided to a Head-Down Display unit, a Head-Up Display unit, or both, each visual aid is presented on the screen of the display unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc.
    Inventors: Travis S. VanDerKamp, Tiffany D. Williamson, Daniel Y. Chiew