TRACKING AIRCRAFT IN A TAXI AREA

• US 20130329944A1
• Filed: 06/12/2012
• Published: 12/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Gellaboina, Mahesh Kumar, Swaminathan, Gurumurthy, Bedros, Saad J., Libal, Vit
• Application Number:
  US13/494,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20130329944A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/916 Airport surface monitoring [ASDE]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/7864 T.V. type tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/54 of traffic, e.g. cars on the road, trains or boats
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/06 for control when on the ground

Abstract

Tracking aircraft in a taxi area is described herein. One method includes receiving a video image of an aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing, determining a portion of the video image associated with the aircraft, determining a geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on the portion of the video image, and mapping the determined geographical track to a coordinate system display while the aircraft is taxiing.

Claims

1. A method for tracking aircraft in a taxi area, comprising:

receiving a video image of an aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing;

determining a portion of the video image associated with the aircraft;

determining a geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on the portion of the video image; and

mapping the determined geographical track to a coordinate system display while the aircraft is taxiing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes:

detecting a motion associated with the portion of the video image; and

determining a shape of the aircraft based on the detected motion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes:

receiving a plurality of video images of the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing;

determining a respective portion of each video image associated with the aircraft;

detecting a respective motion associated with each of the respective portions; and

determining the geographical track associated with the aircraft, based, at least in part, on the detected motions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes determining a geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on a geographical location of a barrier associated with the taxi area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes:

receiving data from a pressure sensing device; and

determining a geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on the video image and the data from the pressure sensing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes:

identifying a tail portion of the aircraft from the video image; and

determining the geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on a shape of the tail portion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes:

receiving radar location data associated with the aircraft; and

determining a geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on the video image and the radar location data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes associating a received signal from a transponder of the aircraft with the mapped geographical track.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes displaying the aircraft in a graphical rendering as an icon.

10. A system for tracking aircraft in a taxi area, comprising:

a plurality of video imaging devices configured to capture a plurality of at least partially overlapping video images including an aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing; and

a computing device configured to;

determine a respective geographical track associated with the aircraft based on each of the plurality of video images; and

determine a fused geographical track associated with the aircraft based, at least in part, on the respective geographical tracks.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is configured to:

determine a speed of the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing, and

determine the fused geographical track based, at least in part, on the determined speed of the aircraft.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is configured to:

determine a direction of travel associated with the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing; and

determine the fused geographical track based, at least in part, on the determined direction of travel.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of video imaging devices are positioned at a different respective location.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of video imaging devices is positioned such that a video image of a particular portion of the taxi area is captured by at least one video imaging device.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is configured to determine the fused geographical track using a Kalman filter parallel data fusion framework.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is configured to determine the fused geographical track based on a clustering associated with the respective geographical tracks.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the computing device is configured to:

determine a first geographic location associated with the aircraft based on a first video image;

determine a second geographical location associated with the aircraft based on a second video image; and

associate the first and second determined geographical locations with the fused geographical track.

18. A computing device for tracking aircraft in a taxi area, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to execute instructions stored on the memory to;

receive a calibration image of a portion of a taxi area from a video imaging device, wherein the portion includes a number of landmarks;

correlate a location of each of the landmarks in the calibration image with a respective geographical location of each of the landmarks in a geographical coordinate system;

receive an image of an aircraft from the video imaging device as the aircraft moves through the portion; and

determine a position of the aircraft in the geographical coordinate system based, at least in part, on the correlation and the image of the aircraft.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the video imaging device is configured to capture the image of the aircraft from a same geographical position as the calibration image.

20. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions to:

receive another calibration image of the portion of the taxi area from another video imaging device, wherein the portion includes the number of landmarks;

correlate a location of each of the landmarks in the other calibration image with a respective geographical location of each of the landmarks in the geographical coordinate system;

receive another image of the aircraft from the other video imaging device as the aircraft moves through the portion; and

determine a fused position of the aircraft in the geographical coordinate system based, at least in part, on the correlations and the images of the aircraft.