System for monitoring airport area

• US 7,414,566 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Issued: 08/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Defence and Space GmbH
• Original Assignee: EADS Deutschland GmbH (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Kaltschmidt, Horst, Klausing, Helmut
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barker; Matthew M
• Application Number:
  US10/542,567
• Publication Number:
  US 20060145913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,650 Days
• Field of Search: 342/29
• US Class Current: 342/29
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S13/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/87 Combinations of radar systems, e.g. primary radar and secondary radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/9082 Rotating SAR [ROSAR]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations

Abstract

A system is for recognizing obstructions and monitoring movements on or above an airport area (1) with sensors (2, 3, 4). A sensor (2) is a radar device having a plurality of antenna elements (12, 14), which are affixed to a curved surface (15) of an antenna carrier (2a) and are turned on, one after the other, in terms of time. Thus a first part of the antenna elements (14) is disposed on a first circular line (13) on the surface of the antenna carrier (2a), and a second part of the antenna elements (12) is disposed on a circular line (15) perpendicular to the first circular line (13). Therefore the data of the radar device (2) are evaluated in a first ROSAR process, to image the situation on the ground, and in a second ROSAR process, to image the heights of the flying objects to be observed.

Claims

1. System for recognizing obstructions and monitoring movements on or above an airport area with a sensor of a first type, a sensor of a second type, and a sensor of a third type,

wherein the sensor of the first type is a radar device having a plurality of antenna elements which are affixed to a curved surface of an antenna carrier and are turned on, one after the other, in terms of time, whereby a first part of the antenna elements is disposed on a first circular line on the surface of the antenna carrier and a second part of the antenna elements is disposed on a circular line perpendicular to the first circular line and whereby the data of the radar device are evaluated in a first ROSAR process, to image the situation on the ground, and in a second ROSAR process, to image the heights of the flying objects to be observed.

2. System according to claim 1,

wherein another component of the system is the sensor of the third type comprising an imaging sensor.

3. System according to claim 1,

wherein another component of the system is a ROSAR radar device, which produces a synthetic aperture by means of rotation of the antenna.

4. System according to claim 1,

wherein another component of the system is the sensor of the second type, comprising a radar device having a plurality of antenna elements, which are affixed to a curved surface of an antenna, on a horizontal circular line, and are turned on one after the other, in terms of time, whereby the data of the sensor of the second type are evaluated according to a ROSAR principle.

5. System according to claim 1,

wherein a first data processing unit that uses iconic imaging processing is present, to which the data of the sensor of the first type and of the sensor of the second type, evaluated according to the ROSAR principle, are passed.

6. System according to claim 5,

wherein a second data processing unit that uses symbolic image processing is present, to which data of the first data processing unit and the data of the imaging sensors are passed.

7. System according to claim 6,

wherein image data produced in the second data processing unit are made visible on a display and/or passed to a communications unit, from where they are passed on to an airport monitoring and/or other communications participants.

8. System according to claim 1,

wherein a position determination of the system components takes place by way of the Global Positioning System.

9. System according to claim 5,

wherein a mobile communications network on the basis of GSM is present for the transmission of data.

10. System according to claim 5,

wherein data are passed to the data processing unit by a communications unit.

11. System according to claim 2,

wherein said imaging sensors are in the infrared and visible wavelength range.

12. System according to claim 8,

wherein the Global Positioning System is a differential GPS.

13. System according to claim 10,

wherein data from pilot radio are passed to the data processing unit by the communications unit.