Systems and methods for analyzing turns at an airport

• US 10,592,749 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2017
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Coppock, John C., Rector, Andrew Glen
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Tom Y
• Application Number:
  US15/696,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137361A1
• Time in Patent Office: 923 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30236 Traffic on road, railway or crossing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30248 Vehicle exterior or interior
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/246 using feature-based methods, e.g. the tracking of corners or segments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/41 Higher-level, semantic clustering, classification or understanding of video scenes, e.g. detection, labelling or Markovian modelling of sport events or news items segmenting video sequences G06V20/49
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0065 for taking-off
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/065 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. for taxiing or rolling

Abstract

One example aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a method for analyzing at least one phase of an aircraft turn at an airport. The method includes receiving one or more video streams. The method includes processing the one or more video streams to identify one or more objects. Processing the one or more video streams includes extracting data associated with the one or more objects. The method includes tracking the one or more objects to determine an event based on the one or more objects and the data. The method includes storing the event in a database with an associated parameter. The method includes performing an analysis of the at least one phase of the aircraft turn based, at least in part, on the event and the associated parameter. The method includes providing a signal indicative of an issue with the event based on the analysis.

Claims

1. A system for analyzing aircraft turns comprising:

one or more cameras;

a database; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive one or more video streams from the one or more cameras;

process the one or more video streams using one or more feature detection techniques to identify one or more objects from the one or more video streams, wherein processing the one or more video streams comprises extracting data associated with the one or more objects, and wherein processing the one or more video streams using the one or more feature detection techniques to identify the one or more objects from the one or more video streams comprises detecting one or more circles within the one or more video streams; and

detecting one or more engines based on the one or more circles;

track the one or more objects to determine an event associated with at least one video stream of the one or more video streams based on the one or more objects and the data, wherein the event is associated with at least one phase of an aircraft turn at an airport;

store the event in the database with an associated parameter;

perform an analysis of the at least one phase of the aircraft turn based, at least in part, on the event and the associated parameter; and

provide a signal indicative of an issue with the event based on the analysis.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a timestamp, wherein the analysis comprises comparing a time derived from at least the time stamp with an expected time, and wherein the analysis indicates that the at least one phase of the aircraft turn takes a threshold amount of time longer than the expected time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein extracting the data associated with the one or more objects further comprises extracting size and position information associated one or more of the one or more circle.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein tracking the one or more objects to determine the event further comprises making a determination that the aircraft is parked when one or more of the one or more circles exceed one or more trigger parameters.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to create a notification that the aircraft is parked when the determination is made that the aircraft is parked.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the database is in a cloud-computing environment.

7. A method for analyzing aircraft turns comprising:

receiving, at one or more computing devices, one or more video streams from one or more cameras;

processing, at the one or more computing devices, the one or more video streams using one or more feature detection techniques to identify one or more objects from the one or more video streams, wherein processing the one or more video streams comprises extracting data associated with the one or more objects;

tracking, at the one or more computing devices, the one or more objects to determine an event associated with at least one video stream of the one or more video streams based on the one or more objects and the data, wherein the event is associated with at least one phase of an aircraft turn at an airport;

storing, at the one or more computing devices, the event in a database with an associated parameter, wherein the parameter is a timestamp;

performing, at the one or more computing devices, an analysis of the at least one phase of the aircraft turn based, at least in part, on the event and the associated parameter, and wherein the analysis comprises comparing a time derived from at least the time stamp with an expected time; and

providing, at the one or more computing devices, a signal indicative of an issue with the event based on the analysis, and wherein the signal indicates that the at least one phase of the aircraft turn takes a threshold amount of time longer than the expected time.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein processing, at the one or more computing devices, the one or more video streams using the one or more feature detection techniques to identify the one or more objects from the one or more video streams comprises:

detecting one or more circles within the one or more video streams; and

detecting one or more engines based on the one or more circles.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein processing, at the one or more computing devices, the one or more video streams using the one or more feature detection techniques to identify the one or more objects from the one or more video streams comprises:

detecting a motion flow in a region of interest within the one or more video streams, and wherein the region of interest comprises a jetway.

8. A system for analyzing aircraft turns comprising:

one or more cameras;

a database; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive one or more video streams from the one or more cameras;

process the one or more video streams using one or more feature detection techniques to identify one or more objects from the one or more video streams, wherein processing the one or more video streams comprises extracting data associated with the one or more objects, wherein processing the one or more video streams using the one or more feature detection techniques to identify the one or more objects from the one or more video streams further comprises detecting a motion flow in a region of interest within the one or more video streams;

track the one or more objects to determine an event associated with at least one video stream of the one or more video streams based on the one or more objects and the data, wherein the event is associated with at least one phase of an aircraft turn at an airport;

store the event in the database with an associated parameter;

perform an analysis of the at least one phase of the aircraft turn based, at least in part, on the event and the associated parameter; and

provide a signal indicative of an issue with the event based on the analysis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein extracting the data associated with the one or more objects further comprises extracting a movement angle and a movement magnitude associated with the region of interest.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the region of interest comprises a jetway.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein tracking the one or more objects to determine the event further comprises making a determination that an aircraft is parked when the movement angle and the movement magnitude of the region of interest are consistent with a deployed state of the jetway.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to create a notification that the aircraft is parked when the determination is made that the aircraft is parked.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the parameter is a timestamp, wherein the analysis comprises comparing a time derived from at least the time stamp with an expected time, and wherein the analysis indicates that the at least one phase of the aircraft turn takes a threshold amount of time longer than the expected time.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the parameter is an expected range of positions for people or equipment associated with the at least one phase of the aircraft turn.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the analysis comprises comparing an observed range of positions for the people or the equipment associated with the at least one phase of the aircraft turn with the expected range of positions.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the parameter is an expected order in which two or more tasks associated with phases of the aircraft turn should occur.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the analysis comprises comparing an observed task order with the expected task order, and wherein the analysis indicates that a task was performed out of order relative to another task.

18. The system of claim 8, wherein the signal indicative of the issue with the event indicates that a vehicle is directly behind the aircraft during refueling of an aircraft.