COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM PROVIDING A VECTOR SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DISTANCE AND BEARING BETWEEN A PRIME VEHICLE AND TARGET OBJECT AT A PREDICTED CLOSEST POINT OF APPROACH THEREBETWEEN

• US 3,737,902 A
• Filed: 08/19/1970
• Issued: 06/05/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: US Small Business Administration (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: James E. Carroll Jr, Joseph F. De Spautz, Richard H. Sorensen, Robert M O'Hagan
• Inventors: O'Hagan, Robert M., De Spautz, Joseph F., Carroll, James E. Jr., Sorensen, Richard H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Borchelt, Benjamin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Montone, G. E.
• Application Number:
  US05/065,228
• Time in Patent Office: 1,021 Days
• Field of Search: 343/112CA,12MD,10,7.3,9 340/23
• US Class Current: 342/41
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/937 of marine craft
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0362 with detection of 1D translations or rotations of an operating part of the device, e.g. scroll wheels, sliders, knobs, rollers or belts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus

Abstract

Radar and associated apparatus track the course of neighboring target vehicles and display closest points of approach between the prime vehicle and the target vehicles to signal potential collisions sufficiently in advance to avoid them, may enter a proposed maneuvering change for the prime vehicle into the apparatus, and the apparatus displays whether the proposed change will present any collision situations.

Claims

1. Collision avoidance apparatus comprising, a source of a signal representative of the velocity of a prime vehicle in a predetermined fixed coordinate system, means for providing a target position signal representative of the position of a target object relative to that of said prime vehicle, means for providing a target velocity signal representative of the velocity of said target object in said fixed coordinate system, and means responsive to the velocity representative and target position signals for providing a vector signal representative of the distance and bearing between said prime vehicle and said target object at the closest point of approach between said prime vehicle and target object were the prime vehicle velocity and target object velocity to maintain the values characterized by the representative signals until said closest point of approach occurs.

2. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said signal representative of velocity of said prime vehicle is representative of the actual velocity thereof.

3. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said signal representative of velocity of the prime vehicle is representative of a proposed velocity for said prime vehicle.

4. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising means responsive to said CPA signal being representative of a closest point of approach that is less than a predetermined distance from said prime vehicle for indicating an alarm condition.

5. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said means for providing a target position signal comprises radar means carried by said prime vehicle.

6. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 5 and further comprising means associated with said radar means for selecting said target vehicle to provide said position signal as bearing and range signals representative of the bearing and range to said target vehicle from said prime vehicle indicated by said radar means.

7. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising means for displaying a representation of said CPA signal to visually indicate the distance from said prime vehicle to said closest point of approach.

8. A collision avoidance system in accordance with claim 6 wherein said means for displaying vectorally displays a representation of said prime vehicle and its velocity and said target object and its velocity.

9. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 6 wherein said display means displays the distance between said prime vehicle and said closest point of approach at the time of said closest point of approach.

10. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising, means for providing a plurality of target position signals each representative of the position of a target object relative to that of said prime vehicle, means for providing a corresponding plurality of target velocity signals each representative of the velocity of a respective target object in said fixed coordinate system. and means responsive to the velocity representative and target position signals for providing respective vector signals each representative of the distance and bearing between said prime vehicle and a respective target object at the closest point of approach between said prime vehicle and each target object were the prime vehicle velocity and target object velocities to maintain the values characterized by the representative signals until said closest point of approach occurs.

11. Collision avoidancE apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising means responsive to the velocity representative and target representative and target position signals for providing a time signal representative of the time from the present to the time of said closest point of approach were the prime vehicle velocity and target object velocity to maintain the values characterized by the representative signals until said closest point of approach occurs.

12. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further comprising means responsive to said vector signal for providing a display of said distance and bearing in at least one of alphanumeric values in list form and line vectors.

13. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 12 wherein said means for displaying includes means for displaying a real time representation of said prime vehicle and the magnitude and direction of its velocity and that of said target objects.

14. Collision avoidance apparatus in accordance with claim 13 and further comprising means for displaying the resulting positioning of said prime vehicle and target objects of proposed changes in the velocity thereof using projected vectors from their present position while simultaneously showing the current position of prime vehicle and target objects.