Systems and methods for using radar-adaptive beam pattern for wingtip protection

Abstract

Systems and methods for adaptively steering radar beam patterns for coverage during aircraft turns. The radar sensor system is mechanically or electrically steered to alter the radar sensor's beam pattern in order to adapt the radar sensor's field of view (FOV) to cover the area of anticipated aircraft wingtip trajectory. The anticipated trajectory is derived, for example, from the aircraft groundspeed, acceleration, heading, turn rate, tiller position, attitude, taxi clearance, etc.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 653,297, filed May 30, 2012, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This application also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 706,632, filed Sep. 27, 2012, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Currently there exists an expensive safety problem of aircraft wingtips clipping obstacles (e.g., 2011 Paris Air Show, an A380 accident in which a wing hit a building; 2012 Chicago O'Hare accident in which a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft's wing clipped an Embraer 140's rudder; 2011 Boston Logan Int. Airport, a Boeing 767 struck a horizontal stabilizer of a Bombardier CRJ900, etc.). Some solutions focus on object detection by radar sensors placed at the wingtips and information about these potential obstacles is presented to the pilot on a human-machine interface (e.g., head-up, head-down, or head-m...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Currently there exists an expensive safety problem of aircraft wingtips clipping obstacles (e.g., 2011 Paris Air Show, an A380 accident in which a wing hit a building; 2012 Chicago O'Hare accident in which a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft's wing clipped an Embraer 140's rudder; 2011 Boston Logan Int.

A challenging drawback of this solution is the fact that the sensor signal covers only the directly forward area in front of the wingtip and leaving the side wingtip angles uncovered by the radar signal, which can be dangerous, especially in turns.

Current solutions provide only limited benefit in such cases, as the obstacle would appear in the sensor's field of view (FOV) just before striking the obstacle and, thus, not providing the aircrew sufficient time for suitable reaction with respect to the given situation.

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