Collision avoidance methods and systems using external lighting systems

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to:

• obtain, from an imaging system associated with a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, image data for a region external to the VTOL aircraft;
• identify an analysis portion of the image data within the region based at least in part on a current attitude associated with the VTOL aircraft;
• identify a priority obstacle within the analysis portion of the image data from among a plurality of obstacles within the image data based at least in part on ranging data from a ranging system associated with the VTOL aircraft corresponding to a discrete subset of the analysis portion of the image data corresponding to the priority obstacle;
• select a lighting system of a plurality of lighting systems associated with the VTOL aircraft based on a current flight phase of the VTOL aircraft;
• and
• in response to identifying the priority obstacle:
• automatically adjust an illumination axis associated with the lighting system associated with the VTOL aircraft to illuminate the priority obstacle by aligning the illumination axis with an estimated position of the priority obstacle;
• dynamically determine a current value for a contrast ratio associated with the discrete subset of the image data encompassing the priority obstacle relative to a remaining subset of the image data within the analysis portion of the image data corresponding to a surrounding environment;
• and
• automatically adjust an intensity of illumination associated with the illumination axis of the lighting system based at least in part on a difference between the current value and a targeted contrast ratio value between the priority obstacle and the surrounding environment within the analysis portion of the image data.

An aircraft system comprising:

• an imaging system to obtain image data for a region external to an aircraft;
• a ranging system to obtain ranging data for the region external to the aircraft;
• one or more avionics systems onboard the aircraft to provide status information indicative of a current state of the aircraft comprising a current attitude and a current flight phase;
• a plurality of lighting systems onboard the aircraft;
• and
• a control module coupled to the imaging system, the ranging system, the one or more avionics systems and the plurality of lighting systems to provide an obstacle illumination service configurable to:
• identify an analysis portion of the image data within the region based at least in part on the current attitude of the aircraft;
• identify a priority obstacle within the analysis portion of the image data from among a plurality of obstacles within the image data based at least in part on the ranging data corresponding to a discrete subset of the analysis portion of the image data corresponding to the priority obstacle;
• select a lighting system of the plurality of lighting systems associated with the aircraft based on the current flight phase of the aircraft, resulting in a selected lighting system;
• automatically adjust an illumination axis associated with the selected lighting system of the plurality of lighting systems to illuminate the priority obstacle by aligning the illumination axis with an estimated position of the priority obstacle;
• dynamically determine a current value for a contrast ratio associated with the discrete subset of the image data encompassing the priority obstacle relative to a remaining subset of the image data within the analysis portion of the image data corresponding to a surrounding environment;
• and
• automatically adjust an intensity of illumination associated with the illumination axis of the selected lighting system based at least in part on a difference between the current value and a targeted contrast ratio value between the priority obstacle and the surrounding environment within the analysis portion of the image data.