Rotorcraft collision avoidance system and related method
AssigneeOrbital ATK, Inc.
InventorsThomas Reinke, John R. Kenyon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of operating a rotorcraft collision avoidance system is provided. The method includes determining a unique characteristic of a detected rotorcraft, determining the actual length of a first rotor based at least in part on the determined unique characteristic of the rotorcraft, locating a major axis of the first rotor of the rotorcraft from a perspective of a home unit, from the perspective of the home unit, determining an angular extent of the major axis of the first rotor, and determining the then current distance from the home unit to the rotorcraft based at least in part on the determined actual length of the first rotor and the corresponding angular extent.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- capturing sensor data by a sensor of a home unit, the sensor data including one or more characteristics of a rotor of a rotorcraft;
- determining an actual length of the rotor of the rotorcraft from sensor data;
- determining an angular extent of a major axis of the rotor from a perspective of the home unit;
- and
- determining a distance from the home unit to the rotorcraft based, at least in part, on the determined actual length of the rotor and the angular extent.
A method, comprising:
- determining a distance from a home unit to a nearby rotorcraft based, at least in part, on comparing at least one measured characteristic of a captured image of the nearby rotorcraft with corresponding known characteristics of known rotorcrafts;
- determining a direction of travel for the nearby rotorcraft;
- and
- generating an alarm if a collision course is determined for the home unit and the nearby rotorcraft.
A rotorcraft collision avoidance system for a home unit, comprising:
- at least one imaging sensor configured and arranged to capture images of a nearby rotorcraft;
- and
- a controller operably coupled with the at least one imaging sensor, the controller configured to:
- receive the captured images from the at least one imaging sensor;
- and
- process the captured images to:
- identify a rotor of the nearby rotorcraft;
- and
- determine distance to the nearby rotorcraft based, at least in part, on a determined actual length of the rotor and a determined angular extent of a major axis of the rotor from a perspective of the home unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.