Patent · US Active

Automatic aircraft collision avoidance system and method

US8886445B1 · kind B1 · utility

6Cited by
8References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 5, 2010
Grant dateNov 11, 2014
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 6, 2032

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2215/16
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention is a system and method of compressing a DTM to be used in an Auto-GCAS system using a semi-regular geometric compression algorithm. In general, the invention operates by first selecting the boundaries of the three dimensional map to be compressed and dividing the three dimensional map data into regular areas. Next, a type of free-edged, flat geometric surface is selected which will be used to approximate terrain data of the three dimensional map data. The flat geometric surface is used to approximate terrain data for each regular area. The approximations are checked to determine if they fall within selected tolerances. If the approximation for a specific regular area is within specified tolerance, the data is saved for that specific regular area. If the approximation for a specific area falls outside the specified tolerances, the regular area is divided and a flat geometric surface approximation is made for each of the divided areas. This process is recursively repeated until all of the regular areas are approximated by flat geometric surfaces. Finally, the compressed three dimensional map data is provided to the automatic ground collision system for an aircraft.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.