COLLISION AVOIDANCE DISPLAY APPARATUS FOR MANEUVERABLE CRAFT

• US 3,725,918 A
• Filed: 11/18/1970
• Issued: 04/03/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sp-Marine Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bert V. Tiblin, Herman J. Fleischer, Philip Lipsky
• Inventors: Fleischer, Herman J., Lipsky, Philip, Tiblin, Bert V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Borchelt, Benjamin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Montone, G. E.
• Application Number:
  US05/090,558
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 343/5EM,112CA
• US Class Current: 342/41
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/937 of marine craft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 3/02 Anti-collision systems

Abstract

Collision avoidance display apparatus that provides indicia representative of present positions of intruding vehicles as well as predicted tracks thereof. Each track terminates in a region representative of the area to be avoided to assure passing the corresponding intruding vehicle by at least a predetermined distance. These displayed indicia provide information for assessing maneuvers to avoid collision with the intruding craft.

Claims

1. In apparatus for assessing maneuvers of a craft to avoid collision with navigable vehicles including sensing means for providing signals representative of the positions and velocities of said craft and vehicles, comprising computing means responsive to said signals for computing regions associated with said vehicles respectively, which regions if avoided by said craft assure that said craft will not pass closer to said vehicles than a predetermined distance for all relative positions and velocities thereof, and display means coupled to said computing means for displaying said regions thereby providing indicia to assess maneuvers of said craft to avoid collision with said vehicles.

2. In the apparatus of claim 1 in which said computing means includes means for computing predicted tracks for said vehicles to said regions respectively, and said display means includes means for displaying said predicted tracks thereby providing indicia to assess maneuvers of said craft to avoid collision with said vehicles.

3. In the apparatus of claim 2 in which said computing means includes means for computing points on said tracks representative of bearings which if taken by said craft would result in said craft passing and vehicles at said predetermined distance at the closest points of approach therebetween respectively and means for computing elongated geometrical curves passing through said points and having longitudinal axes, the ends of which are coincident with said points thereby computing said regions respectively, and said display means includes means for displaying said curves.

4. In the apparatus of claim 3 in which said computing means includes means for computing said elongated curves having lateral axes equal to twice said predetermined distance.

5. In the apparatus of claim 4 in which said elongated curves comprise ellipses having major axes equal to said longitudinal axes and minor axes equal to said lateral axes, respectively.

6. In the apparatus of claim 5 in which said sensing means provides signals representative of the positions and velocities of said craft and a navigable vehicle characterized by parameters XT, YT representing position coordinates of said vehicle, XT, YT representing velocity components of said vehicle, RO representing the distance between said craft and said vehicle at an initial time, VT representing speed of said vehicle, VS representing speed of said craft and RM representing said predetermined distance;

said computing means includes means responsive to the application of measured values of said parameters for solving for values of a parameter D representing said points on said predetermined track using the equation D RO VT WS/US WT - WS UT where, WT XT YT - YT XT/RO and, UT XT XT + YT YT/RO and,

7. In the apparatus of claim 6 in which said computing means further includes means for computing coordinate data for said ellipses in accordance with said values of D, and said display means includes means responsive to said coordinate data for displaying said ellipses.

8. In the apparatus of claim 6 in which said computing means comprises digital computing means programmed to solve said equation.

9. In the apparatus of claim 2 in which said computing means includes means for computing a predicted track for said craft, and said display means includes means for displaying said predicted track thereby providing indicia to assess maneuvers of said craft to avoid collision with said vehicles.

10. Apparatus for assessing maneuvers of a craft to avoid collision with navigable vehicles comprising sensing means for providing signals representative of the positions and velocities of said craft and vehicles, computing means responsive to said signals for computing regions associated with said vehicles respectively, which regions if avoided by said craft assure that said craft will not pass closer to said vehicles than a predetermined distance for all relative positions and velocities thereof, and display means coupled to said computing means for displaying said regions thereby providing indicia to assess maneuvers of said craft to avoid collision with said vehicles.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 in which said sensor means comprises azimuth scanning radar means for detecting said position data of said vehicles with respect to said craft, intermediate display means for displaying images representing said vehicles, transducer means for generating electrical impulses upon intensification of said images respectively on said intermediate display, and means responsive to said impulses for automatically tracking and storing said position and velocity data characterizing said vehicles.