Vehicle for, and a method of, detecting foreign object debris disposed on a runway or taxiway

A vehicle for detecting foreign object debris (FOD) disposed on a surface of a runway or taxiway, the vehicle being configured to travel along the runway or taxiway in a forward direction and comprising an array of forward-facing cameras configured to capture images of the runway or taxiway and transmit the images to FOD detection circuitry, each forwarding-facing camera being a camera oriented such that a respective dot product arising between a camera's optical axis and the forward direction is greater than zero, the array being arranged such that, when in use:

• a forward-facing cameras' fields of view combine to form a cumulative field of view which spans a width of a to-be-imaged part of the runway or taxiway,
• a respective azimuthal angle arising between each forward-facing camera's optical axis and the forward direction does not exceed a limiting value, the azimuthal angle between an extremal forward-facing camera's optical axis and the forward direction being equal to the limiting value,
• each forward-facing camera's imaging plane is positioned such that its displacement along the forward direction is at least a threshold distance away from its respective forward-facing camera, the threshold distance being determined based on the width of the to-be-imaged part of the runway or taxiway, and the limiting value,
• the limiting value being determined based on an extremal forward-facing camera's exposure time, a length scale of the FOD to be detected by the extremal forward-facing camera, a maximum tolerable amount of captured motion blur, and a velocity of the vehicle.