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FAA NEW TECHNOLOGYWORKSHOP III

JANUARY 9, 2007

“EVS – EXPANDED

HORIZONS”

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TOPICS

1. Dynamic-Range Management

2. EVS and LED‘s– Including Advanced Runway Acquisition

3. Runway Infrared Range (RIRR)

4. New MMW Sensors, Conditioning, and Fusion Processing

5. Integrated Synthetic Vision– Machine Verification and Integrity Monitoring

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Dynamic Range Management (a)

• Patented “Multiple Fused” Camera Approach– Separate thermal background scene (LWIR or MWIR)

camera and runway/approach/taxi lights camera

– Lights’ camera can be SWIR and/or Visible/NIR – SWIR is best match for conventional lights (and lower solar

background)– Uncooled InGaAs technology is extremely sensitive

– Visible/NIR senses conventional and LED lighting– New avalanche CCD technology provides a compact LLLTV

– Either can see strobes (when properly implemented)

• Eliminates competing requirements in one camera– Separately optimized; eliminates dynamic-range conflict– No blooming; no reduction in thermal sensitivity– Neither function compromises the other

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B737 on Runway

C-172 Taxiing

Fused EVS With “Incursions”

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Dynamic Range Management (b)Improved Thermal Image Processing for EVS• Sky/ground contrast is very high

– One or other is saturated– Produces large changes in gain/level during banking or

pitch maneuvers– Results in “jumpy” image levels and washout of contrast

• Advanced approach to autogain/level control:– Separate high frequency content from image– Clamp amplitude of original image (low freq ac-coupled)– Optimize gain and level of high frequency image– Recombine the two into composite image

Greatly expands dynamic range Maximizes high frequency detail under all conditions Eliminates jumpiness in level, contrast Optimizes for LCD displays (limited gray shades)

• Enhanced fine detail, all conditions; no blooming• Optimization For HUD, Head-Down Are Different!

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AGC dominatedby ground

AAGCAGC dominated

by sky

Conventional Advanced

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EVS and LED’s

• New visible LEDs: no IR signature– Max-Viz architecture: fuse a third, avalanche-CCD camera

– Or: “VisGaAs” camera (InGaAs, visible through SWIR wavelengths)

– For combined MWIR/SWIR cameras: provide SWIR laser diodes

• Future approach: advanced acquisition technique for LEDs– Cooperative lights: Visible-LED and SWIR laser-diode based

– Visible and eye-safe-SWIR approach lights through landing

– Working with Harvey Mudd College: follow-on to FAA “white LED-based light bar” prototype

activity

– Pursuing capability with ATO-W Navigation Service: operational concepts, technology development, capability growth path

– Penetrates fog significantly beyond ability of human eye

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EVS and LED’s (cont.)

• Acquisition-advantages apply in all conditions– VMC (overcome background noise)

– Night-time (overcome EVS system noise)

• Other potential application: - very small, inexpensive aircraft beacons

– Collision avoidance: robust detection by other aircraft

– UAV see-and-avoid

– Pulsed eyesafe laser diodes with wide angular cones can readily be detected at 5-8 miles at high sky-background levels

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Runway Infrared Range (RIRR)• Major Issue for EVS vs IMC Landing Credit:

Uncertainty regarding “infrared range” to acquire runway• Proposal: Measure the local LWIR/MWIR range in real time

– Requires return to transmissometer(s)– Single-mast scatterometer won’t work (geometric optics don’t apply)

– Emulate the full Allard’s Law algorithm– Thermal-IR background scene PLUS:– Invoke standardized sensors for lights (TSO’d)– Include lights setting, background level– Display and eye response– Details are in new patent disclosure

• Assumptions are similar to RVR– e.g., localized measurement applies to slant-path approach

• May make particular sense at heavy-single-user hubs

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MMW Imaging Radar: New Approaches to Processing

for All-Weather Sensing

• More Effectively Preprocess Radar Data– Raw imagery is relatively crude

– Enhance features of interest by multiple segmentation– Runway, structures, hazards– Suppress clutter, noise

– Best if done “up front”: before conversion to perspective display– Full digital dynamic range

• Effectively Deal With Fundamental Nature of 2D-Radar Imager– Range resolution is quite good (e.g., 1 meter) throughout image

– Use resampling to retain that in perspective display (C-scope) features

– Help alleviate range/elevation ambiguity on non-flat objects:– Appropriate handling of shadows: further range detail vs cancel noise– Can sense the difference between “a structure and a flock of birds”!

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MMWR (cont.)

• 3D Rendering from 2D Radar– New means of successive-frame processing

– Minimal-latency in result

– Also invoke terrain and cultural features: database correlation

– Hazard-detection

Upcoming flight tests: MMW w/3D Processing Fusion with IR

U.S. Army HALS Program

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“Smart-Fusion” Approach for MMW

• Primary theme:– Good data from each sensor is enhanced

– No sensor output degrades good data from other sensors– Noise and clutter are suppressed

• Automatically Select Dominant (Primary) Sensor– Based on spatial-frequency and contrast/noise content

– Selection can change with scene content (e.g., fog, brownout, rain, snow)

– Dynamic selection, transparent to user, damped against oscillation

– Treats other sensor data as localized increment on primary sensor output

– Eliminates polarity-reversal issues

• Applies to multiple, diverse sensors (“All-Weather Sensor Suite”)– Recently demonstrated EO/IR with MMW imaging radar at WPAFB

– Fog, rain, snow

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MMW Dominates IR Dominates

Intermediate

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Fusion of FLIR with MMW radar

“Hard”

LWIR

FUSED Image

“Raw” MMW radar

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I

IR

Fused with MMW

AFRL

AFRL Field DemoJan. 31-Feb. 10, 2006

• Variety of weather conditions• Obstacles detected on runway

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Integrated EVS/SVS

•Critical Paradigm: SVS must be verified

1. Integrated display – pilot does verification

- “SE-Vision”: AFRL/Rockwell Collins/Max-Viz

- Flight tests on FAA Wm. J. Hughes Tech Center B727

- New integrated EVS/SVS offerings for business aircraft, GA

2. Automatic verification – EVS/database correlation

- Powerful tool for additional capabilities, integrity

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Integrated Sensor and Synthetic

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PFD: w/Sensor & no Sensor inset

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PFD and MFD Format

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The view from the FAA 727 cockpit!Flight Test Video New Mexico 2005

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Database capability

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Terrain-Database Correlation

• Need for “smart verification” of SVS– GPS/nav errors, integrity issues vs driving SVS display– Database errors and obsolescence– Presence of transient hazards

• Solution: automatic (“machine-based”) database-correlation with EVS sensors– Uses runway/taxiway geometry, structures, terrain

features– Fixed-wing: runway lock-on– Rotary-wing LZ: lock-on to terrain and other features

• How is it accomplished– Multisensor data fusion– Advanced recognition technology from DLR (Germany)– Integrated into Max-Viz processor

– AI-derived, hypothesis-testing/clustering algorithms for high-integrity “machine decisions”

– Over 100 man-years in development

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Database Correlation (cont.)

• Real-Time Functions:– Verify landing area– Correct the SVS-registration (including guidance symbology)

– Heading

– Verify database accuracy– Detect hazards and annunciate– Separate-thread navigation signal

– 3D position: range to threshold and accurate “virtual ILS”– Includes critical vertical (AGL) signal– Completely independent of GNSS

• Curved-approach acquisition, nav-generation:Demonstrated during SE-Vision flights, fall of 2006

• Broad capability to be incorporated in tech-demo system: Boeing Phantomworks (spring 2007)

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Integrated EVS/Ground-Data Correlation

Boeing Field

Sun Valley

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Curved Approach at Alamosa

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Comparison of GPS and Image Coordinates

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-50

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100

150

200

250

300

-5,000 -3,000 -1,000 1,000 3,000 5,000

Distance in Feet

Fee

t

GPS Lateral DeviationImage Lateral DeviationGPS AltitudeImage Altitude

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MMW Runway Lock and Hazard Detection

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Video Clips

• Split-view takeoff: new thermal image processing• MMW fusion Long Beach• MMW fusion WPAFB tower• MMW hazard: auto-annunciate• Curved-approach runway lock-on• Virtual-ILS generation from runway lock-on• SE-Vision flights