Airport surface surveillance system
First Claim
1. A surveillance system, comprising:
- a radar data interface for receiving radar data from a radar source at a first data rate and for outputting radar data at a second data rate less than the first data rate; and
a radar target processor coupled to the radar data interface, comprising;
a clutter rejecter for generating a clutter map of the clutter signals in the radar data, and for substantially removing the clutter signals from the radar data using the clutter map, the clutter rejecter further determining a threshold level for each radar pixel from the clutter map, comparing the radar data returned from a transmitted pulse to the threshold level for each corresponding radar pixel along a radial direction, and recording the pixel positions both where the radar data first exceeds the threshold and where the radar data first drops below the threshold to define a run;
a morphological processor to receive runs from the clutter rejecter and for associating a plurality pixels of runs together to define a component by performing a morphological opening operation on the runs to eliminate small components and then forming a chain code of the outline of clustered adjacent runs, and for associating one or more components to define a target object; and
a target tracker for receiving target objects from the morphological processor, for tracking paths of target objects, and for detecting and identifying in the radar data false tracks resulting from multipath radar reflections and other sources.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An airport surface traffic surveillance and automation system addresses a wide variety of airport surface conflict scenarios using a combination of runway-status lights, controller alerts, and enhanced controller displays. Runway-status lights, composed of runway-entrance lights and takeoff-hold lights, provide alerts directly to pilots and vehicle operators, to prevent runway incursions before they happen. Controller alerts are used to direct a controller'"'"'s attention to existing conflicts between aircraft on or near the runways. Enhanced displays present symbology to describe aircraft position, size, direction and speed of motion, altitude, aircraft flight number, and equipment type. Aircraft on approach to runways are also depicted on the displays. The invention features an airport surveillance system, having a radar data interface for receiving radar data from a radar source at a first data rate and for outputting radar data at a second data rate less than the first data rate, and a radar target processor coupled to the radar data interface. The radar target processor includes a clutter rejecter for generating a clutter map of the clutter signals in the radar data, and for substantially removing the clutter signals from the radar data using the clutter map, a morphological processor to receive radar data from the clutter rejecter and for detecting from the radar data target objects using the morphology of the target object, a multipath processor to receive radar data from the morphological processor and for detecting and removing from the radar data false targets resulting from multipath radar reflections, and a target tracker to receive radar data from the multipath processor and for tracking the path of target objects on or near the airport surface.
222 Citations
1 Claim
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1. A surveillance system, comprising:
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a radar data interface for receiving radar data from a radar source at a first data rate and for outputting radar data at a second data rate less than the first data rate; and a radar target processor coupled to the radar data interface, comprising; a clutter rejecter for generating a clutter map of the clutter signals in the radar data, and for substantially removing the clutter signals from the radar data using the clutter map, the clutter rejecter further determining a threshold level for each radar pixel from the clutter map, comparing the radar data returned from a transmitted pulse to the threshold level for each corresponding radar pixel along a radial direction, and recording the pixel positions both where the radar data first exceeds the threshold and where the radar data first drops below the threshold to define a run; a morphological processor to receive runs from the clutter rejecter and for associating a plurality pixels of runs together to define a component by performing a morphological opening operation on the runs to eliminate small components and then forming a chain code of the outline of clustered adjacent runs, and for associating one or more components to define a target object; and a target tracker for receiving target objects from the morphological processor, for tracking paths of target objects, and for detecting and identifying in the radar data false tracks resulting from multipath radar reflections and other sources.
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Specification