We described a general approach to support helicopter pilots during low level flight and landing under degraded visual environment. Although there are still requirements to develop new sensors with better performance, especially regarding weather and dust penetration, the sensor-suite of ALLFlight can be regarded as the best COTS technology which is currently available on the market. Following our own definition, the project delivers a contribution to the large solution to overcome the brownout problem. We described how to combine the sensor data with data from terrain models to generate a 3D description of the outside situation of the landing zone. We presented our ideas how to display this outside 3D situation to the pilot. Our concept integrates elements of the see and remember philosophy. This means that every observed single data element of the overall 3D data set is labeled with a certain quality value, i.e., a combination of the quality in the moment of acquisition and the time passed since that point of time. Due to that, every data element becomes devaluated over time, which can be visualized by a 'fading out effect' within the pilots display. Beside these more complex approaches, we also presented ideas how to aid the helicopter pilot during landing on sand or snow, by applying a simple and cheap stereo camera setup, which looks directly down to the ground through the hole in the 'dusty donut'. In principle, it works like a large-scale optical mouse system, which is able to measure the lateral drift of the helicopter. Additionally, the altitude above ground and the tilt angle of the landing zone is estimated. That type of system would allow to be installed in nearly every helicopter, because it does not require other cost intensive installations. With its own cheap attitude sensor it is not depending on a digital avionics interface of the helicopter. And with its own landing guidance display the system can help pilots directly while landing in brownout. Presently we are still dealing with the test flight certification of some of the elements within our test equipment. Next steps in our project will be flight trials on our FHS (Eurocopter EC135), which are scheduled for mid of 2010. We will then be able to record a quite large amount of data from all integrated sensors. This will allow further detailed sensor qualification and a stream-lining of data processing and data fusion algorithms, which will finally lead to advanced concepts for helicopter flight guidance displays.
Allflight- a synthetic vision sensor suite with 'see-through' capability for helicopter applications
ALLflight - Ein synthetisches Sichtsensorsystem mit 'Durchsichtfähigkeit' für Anwendungen beim Hubschrauberflug
AHS International Annual Forum, 66 ; 2154-2162
2010
9 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 23 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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