Eads Deutschland Gmbh

Hensoldt Sensors Gmbh

Airbus Ds Electronics and Border Security Gmbh

Airbus Defence and Space Gmbh

Matthias Wegner

Thomas Muensterer

Peter Kielhorn

Patrick Kramper

Harald Harder

Michael Hoyer

Thomas Münsterer

Ulf Fiederling

A method for assessing a ground area for suitability as a landing zone or taxi area for aircraft is provided. Three-dimensional data for the ground area in a plurality of measurement cycles in a 3D sensor is produced. The measured-value density of the three-dimensional data and also of at least one further statistical property of the three-dimensional data is determined. A measure of the local roughness of the ground area is produced based on the measured-value density and the at least one further statistical property. The individual area elements of the ground area are classified on the basis of the roughness values produced according to the degree of suitability of said area elements as a landing area or taxi area.

Method for assessing a ground area for suitability as a landing zone or taxi area for aircraft

A method for segmenting the data of a 3D sensor produced in the presence of aerosol clouds and for increasing the situation awareness and the location detection of obstacles involves transforming the sensor data are transformed into a 3D measurement point cloud, determining related subsets as measurement point clusters from the 3D measurement point cloud of an single measurement cycle of the 3D sensor based on the local measurement point density, determining at least one of the characteristic parameters of the individual measurement point clusters, the characteristic parameters including position, orientation in space, and shape, and determining a time variation of the characteristic parameters using the recorded parameters calculated from subsequent measurement cycles, from which the association of a measurement point cluster with a real obstacle or with the aerosol cloud results.

Method for segmenting the data of a 3D sensor produced in the presence of aerosol clouds for increasing the situational awareness and the location detection of obstacles

A method for producing a sensor-supported, synthetic view for landing support of helicopters under brown-out or white-out conditions is provided. A virtual 3-D representation of the landing zone is continuously created from 3-D data of the intended landing zone recorded during the landing approach and a monitoring routine is available to ensure that no 3-D data that was produced under brown-out or white-out conditions is considered in the representation. As soon as the monitoring routine detects that 3-D data has been recorded under brown-out or white-out conditions, an additional radar sensor is activated to continuously produce distance and/or Doppler data of potential objects entering the landing zone, the objects being displayed to a pilot of the landing helicopter in the synthetic view.

Method for producing sensor-supported, synthetic vision for landing support of helicopters under brown-out or white-out conditions

A man-machine interface for assisting a pilot during takeoff or landing of an airborne vehicle in reduced external visibility includes a display which represents a virtual scenario from the perspective of a virtual observer who is himself located behind the airborne vehicle and is in the same flight attitude as the airborne vehicle itself. The virtual scenario includes a base plane which symbolizes an idealized ground surface, calculated from the instantaneous value of the altitude above ground and the instantaneous flight attitude data of the aircraft. The base plane is bounded by an artificial horizon and is continuously updated with the instantaneous flying state data and the instantaneous height above ground. The virtual scenario also includes a symbol which represents the airborne vehicle, and the position of the symbol relative to the base plane represents the current flight attitude and the instantaneous height of the airborne vehicle above ground.

Man-machine interface for pilot assistance

A method for supporting low-level aircraft flights in which a warning is provided for the pilot upon a reliable recognition of wire-like obstacles, even during extreme environmental influences, such as clutter, or even when such obstacles are seen against the sky. The method is performed upon the collection of information on the topography of the surrounding terrain by at least one sensor located on the aircraft, such information representing raw data, based upon which an image-like representation is calculated, such representation including a pixel quantity with pixels P(i, j) in columns j and lines i, which image-like representation is evaluated by calculating altitude values in a geodetic coordinate system using the flight condition from the aircraft, evaluating pixel quantity by comparing each pixel P(l, j) to threshold values or ranges of values, evaluating the image-like representation and highlighting each pixel as a picture element if any of various cases is present.

Growing community of inventors

Friedrichshafen, Germany

Matthias Wegner