Method and system for aircraft taxi strike alerting using adaptive field of view
First Claim
1. A system for calculating position values and/or range data of an object(s) external to an aircraft, the system comprising:
- a mode selector configured to determine an illumination field of view;
a projector mounted at a projector location on the aircraft and configured to project structured light within the illumination field of view, thereby illuminating the object(s) external to the aircraft that are within the illumination field of view;
a camera mounted at a camera location on the aircraft and configured to receive a portion of the structured light reflected by the object(s) within the illumination field of view, and further configured to focus the received portion of the structured light onto a focal plane array comprising a plurality of light-sensitive pixels, thereby forming an image of object(s) within the illumination field of view, the image comprising pixel data generated by the plurality of light-sensitive pixels; and
an image processor configured to identify pixel coordinates corresponding to a subset of the plurality of light-sensitive pixels upon which the received portion of the structured light reflected by the object(s) within the illumination field of view is focused, the image processor further configured to use triangulation, based on the projector location, the camera location, and the identified pixel coordinates, to calculate the position values and/or range data of the object(s) within the illumination field.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Apparatus and associated methods relate to controlling, based on a mode selector, the field of view of an external object detector during aircraft taxi operations. For example, during high-speed taxi operations, the field of view can be controlled to have a relatively-small solid-angle of detection capability. The relatively-small solid-angle field of view can be aligned so as to detect more distant objects within a narrow corridor extending forward of the aircraft'"'"'s wingtips. During low-speed taxi operations, for example, the field of view can be controlled to have a relatively-large solid-angle of detection capability. The relatively-large solid-angle field of view can be aligned so as to detect close objects in the vicinity of the aircraft wings and engine nacelle. The object detector projects structured light within the controlled field of view, thereby illuminating the object(s) external to the aircraft that are within the illumination field of view.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for calculating position values and/or range data of an object(s) external to an aircraft, the system comprising:
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a mode selector configured to determine an illumination field of view; a projector mounted at a projector location on the aircraft and configured to project structured light within the illumination field of view, thereby illuminating the object(s) external to the aircraft that are within the illumination field of view; a camera mounted at a camera location on the aircraft and configured to receive a portion of the structured light reflected by the object(s) within the illumination field of view, and further configured to focus the received portion of the structured light onto a focal plane array comprising a plurality of light-sensitive pixels, thereby forming an image of object(s) within the illumination field of view, the image comprising pixel data generated by the plurality of light-sensitive pixels; and an image processor configured to identify pixel coordinates corresponding to a subset of the plurality of light-sensitive pixels upon which the received portion of the structured light reflected by the object(s) within the illumination field of view is focused, the image processor further configured to use triangulation, based on the projector location, the camera location, and the identified pixel coordinates, to calculate the position values and/or range data of the object(s) within the illumination field. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for generating an alert signal of a potential aircraft collision for a taxiing aircraft, the method comprising the steps of:
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determining an illumination field of view; projecting structured light within the determined illumination field of view; receiving a portion of the structured light reflected by object(s) within the illumination field of view; focusing the received portion of the structured light onto a focal plane array comprising a plurality of light-sensitive pixels, thereby forming an image of the object(s) within the illumination field of view, the image comprising pixel data generated by the plurality of light-sensitive pixels; identifying pixel coordinates corresponding to a subset of the plurality of light-sensitive pixels upon which the received portion of the structured light reflected by the object(s) within the illumination field of view is focused; calculating, based on a projector location, a camera location, and the identified pixel coordinates, position values and/or range data of the object(s) within the illumination field of view by which the structured light is reflected; and generating an alert signal if the calculated position values and range data of the object(s) indicate that one or more of the object(s) are within a collision zone or on a collision trajectory. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification