Passive power line detection system for aircraft

A passive obstacle detection system comprising:

• an infrared imaging system that acquires images;
• and
• a software system that processes images acquired by the infrared imaging system;
• wherein the software system further comprises cellular automata routines that propagate pixels along a line according to a set of local rules, thereby producing line segments that are linked and determined to be obstacles.

A passive obstacle detection system comprising:

• an infrared imaging system that acquires images;
• and
• a software system that processes images acquired by the infrared imaging system;
• wherein the software system further comprises cellular automata routines that propagate pixels along a line according to a set of local rules, thereby producing line segments that are linked and determined to be obstacles such that aircraft flight controls are automatically adjusted according to the obstacles.

A passive obstacle detection system comprising:

• an infrared imaging system that acquires images;
• a software system that processes images acquired by the infrared imaging system;
• and
• a passive ranging system in communication with the software system,
• wherein the software system further comprises cellular automata routines that propagate pixels along a line according to a set of local rules, thereby producing line segments that are linked and determined to be obstacles such that the passive ranging system assigns a range to the obstacles to reduce the probability of false alarms.

A method for detection of obstacles, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) generating a field of direction vectors for pixels acquired by an imaging system;
• (b) propagating the pixels along a line using cellular automata techniques to produce line segments;
• (c) linking the line segments;
• and
• (d) presenting the linked line segments as obstacles.

A method for detection of obstacles, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) generating a field of direction vectors for pixels acquired by an imaging system;
• (b) propagating the pixels along a line using cellular automata techniques to produce line segments;
• (e) linking the line segments;
• (f) presenting the linked line segments as obstacles;
• and
• (g) assigning a range to the obstacles to reduce the probability of false alarms.