Optical detection and ranging sensor system for sense and avoid, and related methods
First Claim
1. An object detection and avoidance apparatus carried by an unmanned aerial vehicle to provide passive sensing and facilitate avoiding airborne obstacles, the apparatus including at least one optical system comprising:
- a collimator positioned to receive and collimate light waves defining an optical image of an aerial environment within a substantial portion of a field of regard defining a wide field of view and to align the light waves having differing wavelengths entering the collimator to reduce dispersion of separate color components thereof, the aerial environment including, one or more airborne objects;
a plurality of light-sensing elements defining a focal plane array positioned to receive at least a portion of the optical image within the wide field of view to generate image data;
a scan mirror assembly positioned in optical communication with the collimator and in optical communication with the focal plane array to selectively direct light reflected front the one or more airborne objects to the focal plane array according to a narrow field of view, the narrow field of view comprising an image area of less than at least approximately 10 percent of an image area of the wide field of view; and
a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of micro-mirrors, the spatial light modulator positioned in optical communication with the scan mirror assembly and the focal plane array and configured to adjust light intensity of light directed to the focal plane array responsive to environmental lighting conditions of the light received from the scan mirror assembly to thereby maintain the light intensity of the light directed to the focal plane array below a maximum intensity level.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus carried by an unmanned vehicle to provide passive sensing and facilitate avoiding airborne aerial obstacles is provided. The apparatus can include at least one, but typically multiple optical systems installed, for example, in the nose of the aerial vehicle to passively sense and determine a range, direction, and velocity of the airborne obstacles to allow the aerial vehicle to avoid the airborne obstacles. The typical optical system includes at least one focal plane array or other imaging device configured to receive a wide field of view and at least one focal plane array or other imaging device configured to receive a steerable narrow field of view within the wide field of view to allow concentrated determination of the range, direction, and/or velocity of obstacles detected by the wide field of view imaging devices.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. An object detection and avoidance apparatus carried by an unmanned aerial vehicle to provide passive sensing and facilitate avoiding airborne obstacles, the apparatus including at least one optical system comprising:
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a collimator positioned to receive and collimate light waves defining an optical image of an aerial environment within a substantial portion of a field of regard defining a wide field of view and to align the light waves having differing wavelengths entering the collimator to reduce dispersion of separate color components thereof, the aerial environment including, one or more airborne objects; a plurality of light-sensing elements defining a focal plane array positioned to receive at least a portion of the optical image within the wide field of view to generate image data; a scan mirror assembly positioned in optical communication with the collimator and in optical communication with the focal plane array to selectively direct light reflected front the one or more airborne objects to the focal plane array according to a narrow field of view, the narrow field of view comprising an image area of less than at least approximately 10 percent of an image area of the wide field of view; and a spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of micro-mirrors, the spatial light modulator positioned in optical communication with the scan mirror assembly and the focal plane array and configured to adjust light intensity of light directed to the focal plane array responsive to environmental lighting conditions of the light received from the scan mirror assembly to thereby maintain the light intensity of the light directed to the focal plane array below a maximum intensity level. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An object detection and avoidance apparatus carried by an unmanned aerial vehicle to provide passive sensing and facilitate avoiding airborne obstacles, the apparatus including at least one optical system comprising:
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a collimator positioned to receive and collimate light waves defining an optical image of an aerial environment within a substantial portion of a field of regard defining a wide field of view and to align the light waves having differing wavelengths entering the collimator to reduce dispersion of separate color components thereof, the aerial environment including one or more airborne objects; a first plurality of light-sensing elements defining a first focal plane array positioned to receive at least a portion of the optical image within the wide field of view to generate image data according to a narrow field of view; a scan mirror assembly positioned in optical communication with the collimator and in optical communication with the focal plane array to selectively direct light reflected from the one or more airborne objects to the focal plane array according to a narrow field of view, the narrow field of view comprising an image area of less than at least approximately 10 percent of an image area of the wide field of view, the scan mirror assembly including a first and a second scan mirror to provide airborne object selection according to a narrow field of view from within the wide field of view; a first infrared spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of micro-mirrors and positioned in optical communication with the scan mirror assembly and the first focal plane array and configured to adjust relative aperture size of light received from the scan mirror assembly to optimize blur differential between each of a plurality of pairs of images and blur for at least one selected airborne object within each image on the first focal plane array to enhance determining atmospheric blur and object range estimates, and to adjust light intensity of light directed to the first focal plane array responsive to environmental lighting conditions of the light received front the scan mirror assembly to thereby maintain the light intensity of the light directed to the first focal plane array below a maximum intensity level; a second plurality of light-sensing elements defining a second focal plane array positioned to receive the optical image within the wide field of view to generate image data according to the wide field of view; a beam splitter positioned to simultaneously provide the optical image of the aerial environment according to the wide field of view to both the scan mirror assembly and to the second focal plane array; and as second infrared spatial light modulator comprising a plurality of micro-mirrors, the second spatial light modulator positioned in optical communication with the beam splitter and the second focal plane array and configured to adjust relative aperture size of light directed to the second focal plane array to optimize blur differential between each of a plurality of pairs of images and blur for at least one selected airborne object within each image on the second focal plane array to enhance determining atmospheric blur and range estimates, and to adjust light intensity of light directed to the second focal plane array responsive to environmental lighting conditions of the light received from the beam splitter to thereby maintain the light intensity of the light directed to the second focal plane array below a maximum intensity level. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of passively sensing and avoiding aerial targets, the method comprising the steps of:
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collecting image data for each image of a pair of images of a common aerial environment within a field of regard, the aerial environment including one or more airborne objects, each image of the pair of images including a component of atmospheric blur associated with the aerial environment, the image data for each of the pair of images separately collected using at least one different optical parameter setting for a passive mono-optical system having a field of view; comparing the image data for one of the pair of images to the image data of the other of the pair of images to determine an approximate amount of atmospheric blur in the image data for at least one of the pair of images; determining the approximate amount of atmospheric blur in the image data for the at least one of the pair of images responsive to the comparison to thereby remove the atmospheric blur from image data for each of the pair of images to define conditioned image data; comparing resultant blur values for the pair of images responsive to removal of atmospheric blur from the image data for each of the pair of images to thereby determine the approx range of at least one of the one or more airborne objects; and determining an approximate range, to each of the one or more airborne objects within the field of view of the optical system responsive to the conditioned image data. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification