Rotorcraft collision avoidance system
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 of operating a rotorcraft collision avoidance system, the method comprising:
- determining a unique characteristic of a detected rotorcraft;
- determining an 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 a 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 angular extent of the major axis of the first rotor.
A method of operating a rotorcraft detection system, the method comprising:
- taking a first set of images of at least one rotor of a rotorcraft over a first period of time with a sensor of a home unit;
- temporally filtering the first set of images;
- determining a frequency of the at least one rotor based on the temporally filtered first set of images;
- matching the determined frequency of the at least one rotor with a known frequency of a known rotorcraft;
- determining an actual diameter, of the at least one rotor based on the match;
- locating a major axis in the temporally filtered first set of images;
- determining an angular extent between ends of the major axis;
- and
- determining a then current distance between the sensor of the home unit and the rotorcraft based on the determined angular extent and the actual diameter of the at least one rotor.
A rotorcraft collision avoidance system comprising:
- at least one imaging sensor configured and arranged to capture images of nearby rotorcrafts, the at least one imaging sensor including at least one imaging sensor selected from the group consisting of a mid-wave infrared imaging sensor, a radar system, an acoustic system, a digital camera, and an infrared sensor;
- a controller in communication with the at least one imaging sensor, the controller comprising at least one controller selected from the group consisting of digital electronic circuitry, a programmable processor, and a specially designed application-specific integrated circuit, the controller configured to:
- receive the images from the at least one imaging sensor;
- and
- process the captured images to determine distances to the nearby rotorcrafts based, at least in part, on identifying the nearby rotorcrafts with the images, identifying a major axis of a main rotor of each of the nearby rotorcrafts with the images and determining an angular extent between ends of the major axis;
- a memory in communication with the controller to store processed image data and instructions;
- and
- a communication device in communication with the controller, the communication device configured and arranged to communicate the determined distances responsive to direction of from the controller, the communication device including at least one of an electronic display and an audio speaker.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.