U.S. patent application number 09/848106 was filed with the patent office on 2002-11-07 for runway incursion detection and warning system.
Invention is credited to Smithey, Donald L..
Application Number | 20020163461 09/848106 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25302358 |
Filed Date | 2002-11-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020163461 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Smithey, Donald L. |
November 7, 2002 |
RUNWAY INCURSION DETECTION AND WARNING SYSTEM
Abstract
An airport runway incursion detection and warning system for
monitoring ground traffic in the vicinity of a runway or taxiway of
an airport. The system utilizes a microwave radar transceiver,
commonly referred to as a motion detector, connected to a voice
annunciator to provide a verbal warning of aircraft or ground
vehicle runway incursion. In one embodiment, the microwave
transceiver is integrated into a runway lamp and includes a
transformer to allow the transceiver to operate from an existing
runway lamp power system.
Inventors: |
Smithey, Donald L.; (Omaha,
NE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
CHRISTIE, PARKER & HALE, LLP
350 WEST COLORADO BOULEVARD
SUITE 500
PASADENA
CA
91105
US
|
Family ID: |
25302358 |
Appl. No.: |
09/848106 |
Filed: |
May 2, 2001 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
342/29 ; 342/32;
342/36; 342/37 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G08G 5/065 20130101;
G08G 5/0082 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
342/29 ; 342/32;
342/36; 342/37 |
International
Class: |
G01S 013/93 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. An airport runway incursion detection and warning system for
monitoring ground traffic in the vicinity of a runway of an
airport, the system comprising: a plurality of microwave radar
transceivers, the transceivers being capable of selectively
detecting incoming or outgoing traffic, wherein each transceiver
transmits a signal upon detecting the incoming or outgoing traffic;
an annunciator, wherein the annunciator plays a prerecorded voice
warning message in response to the signals transmitted by the
microwave radar transceivers.
2. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 1,
wherein the annunciator plays a voice warning message which is
unique to each particular transceiver.
3. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 1,
wherein each transceiver includes a power adapter to allow the
transceiver to be connected to existing runway or taxiway power
sources.
4. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 3,
wherein the power adapter is a step-down transformer.
5. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 1,
wherein each transceiver includes a time delay relay, wherein once
a particular transceiver is triggered, the relay maintains the
particular transceiver's signal for a predetermined period of
time.
6. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 1,
wherein each transceiver includes filtering circuitry such that
only strong transceiver signals indicative of an aircraft or ground
vehicle are transmitted to the annunciator.
7. An airport runway incursion detection and warning system for
monitoring ground traffic in the vicinity of a runway of an
airport, the system comprising: a microwave radar transceiver, the
transceiver being capable of selectively detecting incoming or
outgoing traffic, wherein the transceiver transmits a signal upon
detecting the incoming or outgoing traffic; an annunciator, wherein
the annunciator plays a prerecorded voice warning in response to
the signal transmitted by the microwave radar transceiver.
8. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 7,
wherein the system includes a power adapter to allow the system to
be connected to existing runway power sources.
9. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 8,
wherein the power adapter is a step-down transformer.
10. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 8,
wherein the power adapter is connected to a power source
independent of the runway or taxiway lights.
11. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 7,
wherein the transceiver includes a time delay relay, wherein once
the transceiver is triggered, the relay maintains the transceiver's
signal for a predetermined period of time.
12. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 7,
wherein the system includes filtering circuitry such that only
strong transceiver signals indicative of an aircraft or ground
vehicle are transmitted to the annunciator.
13. An airport runway incursion detection and warning system for
monitoring ground traffic in the vicinity of a runway of an
airport, the system comprising: a plurality of microwave radar
transceivers, the transceivers being capable of selectively
detecting incoming or outgoing traffic, and of transmitting a
signal upon detecting the incoming or outgoing traffic, wherein
each transceiver is integrated with a runway or taxiway lamp; an
annunciator, wherein the annunciator plays a prerecorded voice
warning message in response to the signals transmitted by the
microwave radar transceivers.
14. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 13,
wherein the runway lamp is a breakaway lamp.
15. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 13,
wherein the annunciator plays a voice warning message which is
unique to each particular transceiver.
16. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 13,
wherein each transceiver includes a power adapter to allow the
transceiver to be run from the same power source as used by the
runway or taxiway lamp, and wherein the power adapter is integrated
with the lamp.
17. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 16,
wherein the power adapter is a step-down transformer.
18. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 16,
wherein the power adapter is connected to a power source
independent of the runway or taxiway lights.
19. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 13,
wherein each transceiver includes a time delay relay, wherein once
a particular transceiver is triggered, the relay maintains the
particular transceiver's signal for a predetermined period of time,
and wherein the time delay relay is integrated with the lamp.
20. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 13,
wherein each transceiver includes filtering circuitry such that
only strong transceiver signals indicative of an aircraft or ground
vehicle are transmitted to the annunciator, and wherein the
filtering circuitry is integrated with the lamp.
21. An airport runway incursion detection and warning system for
monitoring ground traffic in the vicinity of a runway of an
airport, the system comprising: a plurality of microwave radar
transceivers, the transceivers being capable of selectively
detecting incoming or outgoing traffic, and of transmitting a
signal upon detecting the incoming or outgoing traffic; each
transceiver being integrated with a breakaway or runway or taxiway
lamp, and each transceiver including a step-down transformer,
wherein the transformer allows the transceiver to operate from the
same power source as the lamp; each transceiver further including a
time delay relay, wherein once the transceiver is triggered, the
relay maintains the transceiver's signal for a predetermined period
of time; and an annunciator, the annunciator being adapted to play
a prerecorded voice warning message in response to the signals
transmitted by the microwave radar transceivers, wherein the
annunciator plays a voice warning message is unique to each
particular transceiver.
22. The runway incursion detection and warning system of claim 19,
wherein each transceiver includes filtering circuitry such that
only strong transceiver signals indicative of an aircraft or ground
vehicle are transmitted to the annunciator.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to the field of airport ground
traffic control systems and more particularly to a system for
determining aircraft position on an airport surface and for
providing warnings of potential collisions.
[0002] Unauthorized incursions of aircraft and ground vehicles onto
runways and taxiways can often have catastrophic results. The
number of aircraft accidents that occur on the ground is nearly
three times the number of aircraft accidents that occur in the
air.
[0003] In poor visual conditions the problem becomes even worse
since the ground controller is often reliant on non-visual
information such as voice communications from the cockpit crew,
reporting an aircraft's current position on the airport surface, or
on display information from a ground traffic control radar system.
Unfortunately, due to their prohibitive cost, only some of the
largest airports in the United States have ground traffic control
radar systems to aid the controller. The remainder of U.S. airports
depend solely on the visual observations of flight controllers and
on position reports from pilots. Of the airports which have ground
traffic control radar, some of these systems are modern systems
such as the ASDE-3 systems. However, many existing ground traffic
control radars are over twenty years old, are difficult to
maintain, and may provide inadequate information in poor weather
because rain, snow, and fog tend to interfere with the radar
signals. Thus, in a large number of airports, during poor weather
conditions, the flight controllers are often literally reduced to
asking air crews "where are you?" to locate aircraft on the airport
surface. Fortunately, for any particular airport there are
generally only a few taxiway/runway intersections that are critical
intersections, i.e., those intersections that have a history of an
excessive number of runway incursions.
[0004] What is needed therefore is a reliable yet low cost system
that provides a warning of unauthorized runway incursions to the
flight controllers. Ideally, such a system will provide an audible
warning to flight controllers since the controllers are typically
continually watching their air traffic control screens and may not
notice a purely visual warning of a runway incursion. In addition,
such a system should be free from the poor weather operational
problems associated with conventional radar warning systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The present invention is a simple, low cost, but effective,
runway incursion warning system for monitoring the critical
runway/taxiway intersections of an airport and for communicating
data indicative of a possible runway incursion to flight
controllers or other airport personnel. The system uses
off-the-shelf microwave radar motion detectors for detecting the
approach of aircraft, ground vehicles, or people. A microwave radar
system has important advantages over a conventional radar system.
Most notably, due to the comparatively short wavelengths of
microwaves, such systems are not as affected by rain, snow, or fog,
as are conventional radar systems.
[0006] In the system of the present invention, microwave radar
transceivers or motion detectors are located at predetermined
installation sites adjacent to selected runways and/or taxiways of
the airport. The motion detectors include a transmitter unit and a
receiver unit. The detectors operate by transmitting microwaves in
a cone shaped dispersion pattern. When an aircraft or a ground
vehicle enters the dispersion pattern some of the microwaves are
reflected back to the motion detector and are detected by the
receiver unit. Commonly available motion detectors may be
configured to detect motion in one direction only, thus the system
of the present invention may be configured to selectively detect
either incoming or outgoing traffic. The detectors may also be
arranged in pairs to detect the direction of travel of an aircraft
or vehicle.
[0007] In the system of the present invention, when the detectors
detect the approach of an aircraft or ground vehicle, a signal is
transmitted to an annunciator located in the tower. The annunciator
provides a verbal warning to tower personnel of a potential runway
intrusion. Preferably, the annunciator is programable so that
different voices will provide warnings depending upon, for example,
where the runway intrusion is occurring. This feature is highly
advantageous, in that by using a different voice to indicate a
runway intrusion at each critical area, tower personnel will be
able to immediately recognize where the intrusion has occurred
without waiting to hear the complete warning. A further advantage
of the present invention system is that it operates at low power
and may utilize the existing cabling normally provided for runway
lights. In one particularly preferred embodiment, the motion
detector and associated hardware are integrated with a typical
runway lamp. These and other features of the invention will become
more apparent from the following detailed description of the
invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying
exemplary drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the system of the
present invention.
[0009] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the
present invention where the motion detector and associated hardware
are integrated with a runway light.
[0010] FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a motion detector in
accordance with the present invention disposed adjacent to a
runway.
[0011] FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of two motion detectors
in accordance with the present invention disposed adjacent to a
runway in such a manner that the direction of travel of an aircraft
or ground vehicle may be determined.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0012] An exemplary system embodying the present invention shown in
FIG. 1 comprises a microwave radar transceiver 12, which is
commonly referred to as a motion detector, a power adapter 18, a
fuse 20, a timing relay 22, and a programable annunciator 24.
[0013] Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 3, the microwave transceiver 12
includes a transmitter unit 14 and a receiver unit 16. In this
exemplary embodiment, the transmitter broadcasts microwaves 25, in
a cone shaped dispersion pattern 26, across a taxiway or runway 28.
When a moving object such as an aircraft 30, or a ground vehicle
32, enters the dispersion pattern some of the microwaves are
reflected back to the receiver unit which detects the reflected
microwave radiation and generates a signal 34 indicative of the
aircraft or ground vehicle present in the dispersion pattern. The
microwave transceiver operates using Doppler effect principles,
which are known to those skilled in the art. One of the features of
Doppler effect microwave transceivers of the type used in the
present invention is that the transceiver may selectively detect
either incoming or outgoing traffic. This feature is particularly
important in that often it is desirable to detect only those
aircraft or ground vehicles that are entering a runway or taxiway
from the wrong direction.
[0014] Referring now to FIG. 3, if aircraft landing on the runway
28, in the direction 36, are directed to exit the runway on a
particular "exit" taxiway 38, generating a warning when any
aircraft enters the exit taxiway is of little value in that most of
aircraft entering the exit taxiway are aircraft which have just
landed and are leaving the runway, in the correct direction as
indicated by arrow 40. However, if the microwave transceiver 12B is
set to detect only incoming traffic, all exiting aircraft are
ignored and only aircraft or ground vehicles traveling in an
incorrect direction, i.e., towards the runway, as indicated by
arrow 42, are detected.
[0015] The ability to selectively detect only incoming or outgoing
traffic is further advantageous in that often airports change the
direction in which aircraft takeoff or land on a particular runway.
Thus, with continued reference to FIG. 3, if the airport directed
aircraft to takeoff in a direction opposite to that shown by arrow
36, taxiway 38 would then become the runway "approach" taxiway and
the correct direction of travel would then be towards the runway,
as shown by arrow 42. Thus, detecting aircraft traveling towards
the runway now is of little value, while detecting aircraft
traveling away from the runway, as depicted by arrow 40, is
critical. However, this change in critical direction can be readily
accommodated by resetting the microwave transceiver 12B to detect
only outgoing traffic, i.e., only traffic moving in the direction
40. In the transceivers of the exemplary embodiment, this change in
sensing direction is accomplished by resetting an internal switch
in the transceiver. Microwave transceivers suitable for use with
the system of the present invention are known in the art and are
available from Microwave Sensors, Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan,
among others.
[0016] Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown an arrangement of
microwave transceivers in which two transceivers may be used to
determine the direction in which an aircraft or vehicle is
traveling on a runway or taxiway. As shown in FIG. 4, a transceiver
12C is located on one side of the runway and is set to detect
outgoing traffic. Another transceiver 12D is located on the
opposite side of the runway and is set to detect incoming traffic.
When set up in this manner, airport personal can determine the
direction of travel of any vehicle on the runway or taxiway
depending on whether the incoming or outgoing transceiver is
triggered. The transceivers may also be situated side by side as
shown by transceivers 12C and 12D'. It is required that one
transceiver be set to detect incoming traffic and that the other be
set to detect outgoing traffic.
[0017] Referring again to FIG. 1, the signal 34 generated by the
microwave transceiver 12, upon detecting an aircraft or vehicle, is
transmitted to the annunciator 24. The annunciator upon receiving
the signal plays a prerecorded warning. In the exemplary
embodiment, the annunciator is capable of responding to 64 input
channels with a unique prerecorded voice message for each channel.
Therefore, an airport may deploy multiple transceiver's where each
transceiver is associated with a unique voice and/or warning
message. This feature is highly advantageous, in that by using a
different voice to indicate a runway intrusion at each critical
area, tower personnel will be able to immediately recognize where
the intrusion has occurred without waiting to hear the complete
warning. Those skilled in the art will understand that annunciators
with more or less capability than that of the exemplary embodiment
may be used with the present invention warning system. For example,
annunciators may be tailored to have more or less input channels.
In small airports, with only a few critical runway/taxiway or other
intersections, only a few channels may be needed. Annunciators are
known in the art. The annunciator used in the exemplary embodiment
of the present invention warning system may be obtained from RACO
Manufacturing and Engineering Company of Emeryville, Calif.
[0018] With continued reference to FIG. 1, in some embodiments of
the runway incursion warning system, it may be desirable to include
the timing relay 22. Occasionally, situations may occur where a
particular transceiver is triggered only momentarily. For example,
an animal may run across a monitored intersection. The transceiver
will transmit a warning signal only so long as the triggering
object is within the transceiver's dispersion area. In the case of
an animal running across a monitored intersection, this time period
may be less than the time required to play the recorded warning
message. This may result in an abrupt termination of the message or
other annunciator error. This problem may be readily solved by
including a timing relay with each transceiver. The timing relay
maintains transmission of the warning signal for a predetermined
period of time whenever the transceiver is triggered. Typically,
this period will be long enough to allow the annunciator to fully
play the warning message. In more sophisticated embodiments, the
timing relay may be replaced with a signal strength meter and
filtering circuitry, in which the meter discriminates between weak
and strong transceiver signals and the filter only allows strong
signals indicative of a ground vehicle or aircraft to be
transmitted to the annunciator.
[0019] Referring now to FIG. 2, a particularly preferred embodiment
of the runway incursion system 10, where the system is integrated
with a typical breakaway runway or taxiway lamp 44, is shown. Due
to the need to control costs at small and medium sized airports, it
is desirable that a ground traffic control system utilize the
existing power delivery infrastructure to the extent practicable.
Since runway lamps are spaced at predetermined intervals along the
runways of most U.S. airports, and such lamps are naturally located
at the critical runway/taxiway intersections of a particular
airport. It is desirable to integrate the warning system of the
present invention with such lamps and to utilize the power lines
for those lamps to supply power to the microwave transceivers.
[0020] In order to integrate the exemplary microwave transceiver 12
with the runway or taxiway lamp 44, the power used by the lamp must
be converted to a form suitable for use by the transceiver. Runway
and taxiway lamps typically operate from constant current 120 volt
AC power sources. The microwave transceivers typically require a
constant voltage 24 volt AC power source. Therefore, the power
adapter 18 (FIG. 1) is required to convert the runway or taxiway
lamp power to a form suitable for use by the microwave
transceivers. In the exemplary embodiment, the power adapter is a
step-down transformer. It is also desirable to include the fuse 20
in the electrical connection to the power adapter to the protect
the warning system 10 from possible voltage surges in the runway or
taxiway lamp power system. Those skilled in the art will understand
that the present invention runway incursion system may be deployed
with its own independent power network 19 (FIG. 1) and that the
system may be readily adapted to operate from powers sources other
than runway or taxiway lighting circuits. In addition, microwave
transceivers suitable for use in the system of the present
invention are available that utilize either AC or DC power and
which utilize other operating voltages. Therefore, the system of
the present invention may be adapted to operate from a wide array
of existing airport power sources, which include, but are not
limited to runway and taxiway lamps.
[0021] The transceiver 12 may be connected to the structure of the
breakaway lamp 44 by means of an angle bracket 48 or by any other
suitable means. The step-down transformer 18, the fuse 20, and the
optional timing relay 22, as well as associated wiring, are
conveniently housed in a junction box 46, which may be any suitable
enclosure. The junction box is attached to the runway or taxiway
lamp by means of brackets 50, or any other suitable attachment
means. In the exemplary embodiment, the transceiver warning signal
is transmitted to the annunciator 24 via a communications cable
such as a telephone cable. However, in other embodiments, the
warning signal may be transmitted to the annunciator by radio
frequency or other means. Such techniques are known to those
skilled in the art.
[0022] The present invention provides a low cost, effective, runway
incursion detection and warning system which may be deployed at
most U.S. airports, and at those of many other countries. The
system may be integrated with a typical breakaway runway or taxiway
lamp which allows for easy installation at critical runway/taxiway
and other intersections. The system may use existing runway or
taxiway light power systems for a power source. Furthermore, unlike
long wave-length radar systems, the microwave radar transceiver
used in the present invention can effectively detect aircraft and
ground vehicles in inclement weather such rain, snow, and fog.
While only the presently preferred embodiments have been described
in detail, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art,
modifications and improvements may be made to the system and method
disclosed herein without departing from the scope of the invention.
Accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be limited
except by the appended claims.
* * * * *