Detection of mobile runway obstacles using dual airborne laser scanners

This paper examines the use of airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) for detection and velocity estimation of mobile obstacles in airport movement areas during landing and low altitude flight. Depending upon the operational conditions, obstacles may become hazards posing a threat to landing safety. In order to prevent runway incursions caused by runway obstacles, pilots must be made aware of all surface traffic. This traffic not only includes other aircraft, but also objects such as ground vehicles, wildlife, pedestrians, and debris. Current landing safety systems such as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) are limited to vehicles equipped with a transponder, while the Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS) is limited by factors including hazard size and communication latency with the pilot. A truly robust hazard monitoring system capable of operating in all scenarios and landing conditions must include the capability to detect all airport surface traffic, estimate the state of that traffic. This task would preferably be independent of information from monitoring systems external to the aircraft. The hazard monitor proposed in this paper makes use of two airborne laser scanners (ALS), an inertial measurement unit (IMU), and the Global Positioning System (GPS) to identify and accurately geo-locate all runway obstacles in addition to estimating the state of the hazard though velocity prediction. Flight-testing and data collection using this system has been preformed at the Ohio University Airport (KUNI) in Albany, Ohio. Results indicate geo-referencing accuracy of approximately 2 m in most cases, along with successful hazard classification, and hazard velocity estimates accurate to within 2.8 m/s.