Aircraft Collision Avoidance Sensors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies lack effective solutions for guiding aircraft during ground maneuvers in tight spaces and ensuring the safety and security of unattended aircraft, particularly in areas where collisions and hijacking risks are high due to the reliance on unaided pilot vision and unreliable security systems.
Innovation Solution
A system of sensors placed at aircraft extremities, including video cameras and illumination, generates images of the surrounding area, processes object characteristics, and provides alerts through a processing device and subsystem to prevent collisions and enhance security by offering a 360-degree field of view and autonomous warning systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sensors are placed at aircraft extremities to provide 360-degree coverage, then collision avoidance capability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The aircraft is divided into multiple extremity portions (wingtips, tail, nose) with sensors placed at each segment. This segmentation allows comprehensive 360-degree coverage while distributing the system complexity across multiple independent sensor units rather than requiring a single complex centralized system.
Solution Approach 2:
Each sensor unit at the extremities is designed to perform multiple functions: detecting objects, determining object characteristics, and providing collision avoidance information. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate specialized systems, thereby managing overall device complexity while maintaining high reliability.
2Reliability
If multiple sensors are deployed at aircraft extremities, then surveillance coverage is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single complex surveillance system, the patent segments the surveillance function across multiple simple sensor units placed at aircraft extremities. Each sensor provides localized coverage, and collectively they achieve comprehensive 360-degree surveillance, reducing the need for expensive centralized equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
Each sensor unit independently performs detection and object characteristic determination at its location, providing self-service surveillance capability. This distributed self-service approach reduces the need for complex centralized processing equipment, thereby lowering overall system cost while maintaining extensive surveillance coverage.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system for monitoring a volume of space surrounding an aircraft (100) having a plurality of extremity portions includes a plurality of sensors (110a-g). Each sensor is disposed at a respective corresponding one of the aircraft extremity portions. Each sensor is configured to generate an image of a monitored area covering a predetermined distance from the extremity portion at which the sensor is disposed. A processing device is configured to determine, from an image generated by a first sensor of the plurality, a characteristic of an object within the monitored area covering the predetermined distance from the extremity portion at which the first sensor is disposed. The processing device is further configured to generate a signal in response to determining the object characteristic.