Magnetic Signal Processing & Analysis for Airfield Traffic Surveillance

This paper presents an innovative system for airport surface surveillance based on a novel magnetic sensing technology. Ferromagnetic objects such as vehicle motors, aircraft engines, and landing gears are detected through their deformation of the Earth's magnetic field. Tests have shown that although the local changes of the Earth's magnetic field are extremely small, the proposed sensing technology is able to detect them reliably. The primary objective of the proposed approach is to provide a complementary surveillance system for existing and future Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems (A-SMGCS) at large airports or a cost-effective surveillance solution for monitoring critical areas at medium and small airports. Unaffected by weather conditions, interference and shadowing effects, the system provides reliable position, velocity, and direction information without requiring any equipment in aircraft or ground vehicles. The outcome of a comprehensive market analysis is discussed and test results under real life conditions at two airports are evaluated analytically.     

Automated video protection, monitoring & detection

The latest generation of computer vision technology is revolutionizing concepts, applications, and products in video surveillance and CCTV. This is of prime relevance to security for large outdoor facilities such as commercial airfields, refineries, power plants, and office/industrial campuses. Most airfields, for example, have open (unfenced) perimeters, high volume heterogeneous traffic, are easily accessed on foot or by water, and exist in areas where regulations providing a safety buffer are difficult to legislate or enforce. And all airfields require 24/7 outdoor monitoring - snow, fog, rain, or shine. Likewise, most high-value facilities appealing to criminals and terrorists are in close proximity to public areas (roads, residences, city, etc.). The appeal of automated real-time surveillance is obvious $maximizing efficiency and effectiveness of security personnel and resources while increasing the probability of preventing a serious security breach. Computer vision based solutions have the potential for very discriminating detection and very low false alarms. The bottom line is that applied computer vision has the potential for the greatest return on investment (ROI), both short-term and long-term.     

UWB Perimeter Surveillance

This program will develop an automated and unmanned ultra-wide band (UWB) perimeter surveillance sensor designed to provide detection and tracking of personnel and vehicles at the perimeter of critical areas such as military installations and other such facilities. This effort describes the work being done for the protection of high value assets using a compact system which incorporates two technologies to enhance the probability of detection in stressing environments     

Review of Airport Surface Movement Radar Technology

Runway incursion is defined by the FAA as "any occurrence at an airport involving an aircraft, vehicle, person or object on the ground that creates collision hazard or results in a loss of separation with an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing or intending to land." A summary of how severe this problem is can be found in a 2001 hearing before the Subcommittee on Aviation. Surface movement radar (SMR) technology has evolved over the years as part of an effort to mitigate runway incursion risks and enhance airport capacity. Surface movement surveillance systems of various types have been installed in major airports as early as the 1960s, and have kept evolving. The most recent system currently being deployed in the US by the FAA is the airport surface movement detection equipment model X (ASDE-X) system. In this system, unlike previous systems, the surface movement radar is just one of several sensors that are used in addition to transponder multilateration and GPS-based position reports, referred to as automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast or ADS-B; however, the SMR is a key subsystem. This paper contains an overview of the state-of-the-art SMR technology and provides an introduction on the use of radar technology for this commercial application. It focuses on the architecture, characteristics and technology of the radar sensor, the characteristics of the clutter and how it affects the performance, effects of multipath, automatic detection and comparison of several sensor architectures. Sensis Corporation has recently completed the testing of a new, improved SMR, which is now part of ASDE-X system. This paper summarizes the main features of this radar     

Development of an Italian low cost GNSS/INS system universally suitable for mobile mapping

The first studies for the mobile mapping and creation of a vehicle for this kind of research was carried out by Canadian Researchers in the 1980s. Since then, these vehicles have been widely employed in several applications (road cadastre maps, terrestrial photogrammihetry, road sign recognition, etc.) for both commercial and research purposes throughout the world. Many GNSSIINS vehicles which can be equipped in different ways with one or more GPS, inertial sensors, and one or several cameras, have been realized. A characteristic shared by most of these devices concerns the high costs of the sensors, of the realization and of the maintenance. For this reason, a GNSSIINS system, that is suitable for any vehicle, made up of low cost devices (two GPS receivers, an INS, and a camera rigidly placed on a metallic bar), has been designed and built by our research group. Two tests run at different velocities have been carried out to evaluate the reliability of the system. After a presentation of the system, the differences that were witnessed during the application of these calibration methods are explained herein.     

Bayesian and Dempster-Shafer target identification for radarsurveillance

This paper considers the problem of target track identification in a radar surveillance system. To build a target identifier alongside a tracker, four features which are available for real-time processing in an air surveillance system are used here: target identity (TID) from a friend-and-foe identification (IFF) system, elevation measurement from the radar, target speed, and acceleration estimated by a tracker. These four features are combined to classify air targets into five different air target categories: friendly commercial, friendly military, hostile commercial (or unknown airline), hostile military, and false targets (clutter). Two popular statistic-based techniques, namely, the Bayesian and Dempster-Shafer methods, are applied to develop radar target identification algorithms for our application. Real-life as well as simulated air surveillance radar data are used to evaluate the practicality and effectiveness of this track identification approach in a radar surveillance system     

Italian low cost GNSS/INS system suitable for mobile mapping

The first studies for the mobile mapping and creation of a vehicle for this kind of research was carried out by Canadian Researchers in the 1980s. Since then, these vehicles have been widely employed in several applications (road cadastre maps, terrestrial photogrammetry, road sign recognition, etc.) for both commercial and research purposes throughout the world. Many GNSS/INS vehicles which can be equipped in different ways with one or more GPS, inertial sensors, and one or several cameras, have been realized. A characteristic shared by most of these devices concerns the high costs of the sensors, of the realization, and of the maintenance. For this reason, a GNSS/INS system, that is suitable for any vehicle, made up of low-cost devices (two GPS receivers, an INS, and a camera rigidly placed on a metallic bar), have been designed and built by our research group. Two tests run at different velocities have been carried out to evaluate the reliability of the system. After a presentation of the system, the differences that were witnessed during the application of these calibration methods are explained herein.     

Preoperational testing of data link-based air traffic managementsystems in Magadan, far East Russia

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been used in many ways which were unimagined by its original planners and implementers. This paper discusses one such application; the surveillance of commercial aircraft in a developing airspace environment. GPS provides system users with the ability to determine their own position with an accuracy, reliability and cost that is unprecedented. Voice procedures augmented by radar have been the primary tools for air traffic surveillance since the end of World War II. But for some countries the equipage of aircraft with GPS and a data link capable of carrying position reports to the ATC authorities is providing a viable alternative to long-range secondary radar systems. In the summer and fail of 1995, ARINC installed and demonstrated equipment in Magadan, Russia which permits air traffic controllers of MagadanAeroControl to monitor GPS position reports generated by aircraft as far away as Canada and the South Pacific. The position reports were displayed against maps and flight tracks. This equipment has clearly demonstrated an alternative technology for the upgrading of the ATC system in Siberia and other remote areas     

Passive millimeter wave imaging considerations for tactical aircraft

Air Force, Army, Navy, and NASA Research Laboratories, in addition to major aerospace companies, are considering millimeter wave (MMW) imaging technology as an enhancement to sensor suits on both occupied and unoccupied vehicles. This is a review of the basic technology involved in MMW imaging and some of the programs and products that might benefit from passive day or night imaging through mist, haze, fog, clouds, smoke and/or dust. Potential applications include UAV surveillance of ground vehicles, airborne approach to airfields, tankers, flight leaders, and detection of airborne targets, including stealth aircraft.     

Recent developments of electric vehicles and their propulsionsystems

Major recent electric vehicle (EV) programs in North America, Europe, and Japan are reviewed. The developments discussed include electric vehicles for fleet operation and electric passenger cars for urban transit. All major auto makers have had their own concept electric vehicle programs, targeted at commercial production in the late 1990s. It Is noted that, with different objectives for various electric vehicles, considerations such as cost, reliability, efficiency, maintenance, durability, weight, size, and noise level should be compromised for the propulsion system design. Consequently, DC motor drives, induction motor drives, and permanent magnet brushless DC motor drives will continually be used for EV propulsion systems in the future, with DC drives being gradually replaced by AC drives. The rapid advances in power semiconductor devices and microprocessors have made it possible to build reliable and cost-effective AC drive systems     

Federal Radionavigation Plan-pie in the sky for civil aviation?

The Federal Radionavigation Plan states that all present navigation and landing guidance facilities will be retired starting in 2005, and full dependence for these functions will be placed on augmented GPS. Once this is implemented, civil aviation will be totally vulnerable to terrorist jamming of the GPS signals over wide earth areas with widespread disruption of air traffic and potential disasters. It has become apparent that the use of GPS/GNSS is complex and expensive for the required civil aviation functions. It is clear that a different system form is needed for civil aviation, a redundant satellite/ground based system that will prevent it from being a jamming target while providing ATC surveillance, area navigation, collision warning/avoidance, high-speed data link and Category I landing guidance globally, plus precision Category III guidance in the terminal areas as needed. Such a system will be described     

高超声速飞行器气动弹性力学研究综述

高超声速飞行器设计上的特点带来了一系列的气动弹性新问题。本文回顾高超声速飞行器气动弹性研究的历史与现状,着重介绍和分析了高超声速非定常气动力计算方法、热环境下的气动弹性问题、壁板颤振、推力影响下的气动弹性稳定性问题以及气动推进/气动弹性耦合的多学科交叉问题,相关的主动控制方法的研究进展亦有所介绍。在已有气动弹性问题研究发展的基础上,提出了高超声速飞行器在气动弹性领域需要解决和关注的若干问题,包括高超声速气动弹性试验、燃料消耗的质量变化对于飞行器气动弹性特性的影响以及气动弹性力学与飞行力学综合等方面。     

Conversations with Patricia Grace Smith. Interview by Frank Sietzen Jr

Ms. Smith, associate administrator for commercial space transportation within the Federal Aviation Administration, answers questions about regulations and licensing related to reusable launch vehicles, space passenger vehicles, and commercial space ventures.     

Extended Area Range Instrumentation System Utilizing DME Links

Updated and expanded range instrumentation installations require a system capable of actually tracking and controlling large numbers of vehicles over expanded areas. A range instrumentation system is discussed based on distance measurement equipment (DME) coupled with high performance data links which satisfies these requirements. Previously developed DME systems utilized a single frequency data link, required a low sample rate, and accomodated only a few vehicles. The DME range instrumentation system described will handle a large number of test vehicles and accomodate high data rates without performance degradation. This is accomplished by incorporating surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices and microprocessors with previous developed technology. A system performance analysis for various configurations of the range instrumentations system design is also presented.     

基于点云聚类评估的激光雷达鲁棒定位方法CSCD

基于先验地图的激光雷达定位方法在封闭工业场景下得到了广泛应用,然而环境变化、行人和车辆等动态物体的干扰会影响激光雷达与先验地图的匹配精度。提出了一种动态环境下基于点云聚类评估的三维激光雷达鲁棒定位方法:通过设定角度和距离双阈值,对点云深度图像进行分割聚类,相较于传统分割方法,分割结果对点云噪声更为鲁棒;通过对原始点云进行分割聚类,在粗匹配结果下评估聚类的匹配度,剔除误匹配聚类进行二次匹配以提高匹配精度;通过聚类评估的结果判断匹配成功和失败的点对,进而对点云整体匹配结果的正确性进行评估,相较于传统仅基于距离阈值的判断准则,具有更高的准确性;最终,分别通过公开数据集和实际试验验证了该算法的有效性。试验结果表明,相较于传统匹配方法,该方法有效提高了动态场景下的定位精度和匹配结果评估的准确度,定位误差可以维持在10cm以内。     

复杂任务场景无人机集群自组织侦察建模与仿真

基于agent的作战建模与仿真是无人机集群侦察效能评估的重要方法,但以往方法中agent行为机制 和模型结构难以描述复杂任务场景下的自组织侦察行为。以反海盗侦察任务为例,提出一种面向集群自组织 侦察的作战建模与仿真方法。设计多agent分层复合行为机制和可组合模块化agent模型结构,通过简单行为 的组合描述复杂行为;通过信息素图模块与航路管理模块的交互,实现自组织航路规划与飞行控制;并通过仿 真算例,来验证方法的可行性,对比分析不同航路规划方法的侦察效能。结果表明:自组织航路规划对中断航 路侦察的动态事件的适应性更强;对于大区域、长时间、低目标密度的区域覆盖侦察任务,仅通过改进航路规划 方法来降低访问间隔难以显著提高目标发现概率。     

Relative navigation for multi-spacecraft system with GPS

A type of multi-spacecraft system with kinematical restraint but no structural restraint and force action is considered. Both the absolute and relative navigation information is required for this multi-spacecraft system, but the relative information is more critical and the accuracy requirements for relative information will be much higher than those for the absolute information. In this paper, the Global Positioning System (GPS)/Differential GPS (DGPS) are introduced and used for relative navigation. Relative motion of space vehicles is modeled. Relative position, relative velocity and relative attitude are represented and solved by GPS/DGPS measurements. Using a type of commercial GPS receiver onboard spacecraft and relative differential GPS technique, the relative navigation of space vehicles can be implemented in real-time     

临近空间低动态飞行器控制研究综述

针对临近空间低动态飞行器出现的新的控制问题,分析和总结了临近空间低动态飞行器控制进展状况和发展趋势。首先,基于飞艇和浮空器等临近空间低动态飞行器的特点,归纳总结了其飞行控制问题。在此基础上,结合这类飞行器的当前发展状况,从飞行器控制角度出发,着重介绍总结了临近空间低动态飞行器在控制系统执行机构配置、数学模型、姿态控制、定点控制、速度控制、航迹优化、轨迹跟踪控制、升空和返回控制、压力控制,以及应用的多种控制策略的研究进展。最后,在已有的控制问题研究发展的基础上,提出了临近空间低动态飞行器在控制研究领域所要解决和关注的若干问题。     

Privacy algorithm for cylindrical holographic weapons surveillancesystem

A novel personnel surveillance system has been developed to detect and identify threatening objects, which are undetectable by metal detectors, concealed on the human body. This new system can detect threats which are fabricated with plastic, liquid, metal, or ceramic. It uses millimeter-wave array technology and a cylindrical holographic imaging algorithm to provide full-body, 360-degree coverage of a person in near real-time. This system is ideally suited for mass transportation centers such as airport checkpoints that require high throughput rates and full coverage. Research and development efforts are underway to produce a privacy algorithm that removes the human features from the images while identifying the potential threats. This algorithm locates and segments the threats and places them on a wire-frame humanoid representation. The research areas for this algorithm development include artificial neural networks, image processing, edge detection, and dielectric measurements. This system is operational and results from this test and the privacy algorithm will be discussed in this paper     

Search using multiple UAVs with flight time constraints

We consider a large scale system consisting of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing a search and surveillance task, based on the uncertainty map of an unknown region. The search algorithm is based on the k-shortest path algorithm that maximizes the effectiveness of the search in term of searching through the maximum uncertainty region, given a constraint on the endurance time of the UAV and on the location of the base station from which the UAVs operate. These constraints set apart this class of problems from the usual search and surveillance problems. We compare the performance of this algorithm with a random search and a greedy strategy search, We also implement the algorithm for the case of multiple UAVs searching an unknown region. The cases of delayed and partial information are also considered. Simulation results that demonstrate the efficacy of the technique are also presented.