| Title: |
Situational Awareness Detection and Warning for Airport Operations |
| Category: |
Industry |
| Intellectual Property: |
Student team assigns intellectual property control to company |
| Year: |
2009 |
| Semester: |
Fall |
| Sponsor Name: |
Northrop Grumman - Technical Services |
| Sponsoring advisors: |
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| Sponsor URL: |
http://www.ts.northropgrumman.com/ |
| Sponsor Information: |
Northrop Grumman Technical Services is located in Sierra Vista, AZ. The mission is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - both field support and depot maintenance. The primary vehicle that is serviced by this facility is the Hunter 5B UAS. The sponsoring group is the Engineering Group at Sierra Vista. |
| ITAR Restriction: |
No |
| Scope of work: |
Definition
Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening aroundyou. Lacking SA or having inadequate SA has been identified as one of the primary factors in accidents attributed to human error.
Problem Statement
The MQ-5B “Hunter” Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) is a made up a number of Air Vehicles (AV) and several mobile vans with ground personnel to conduct and monitor ground operations.
MQ-5B UAS operations require constant situational awareness (SA) on the ground while taxing the AV into position on operational runways before takeoff and after landings. The present method requires a coordinated effort of several people in the area reporting with radios.
U of A goal
U of A engineering is to provide remote sensing capability which provides a real time overhead view of the airport operations area on a computer monitor. The AV has GPS position information in real time which should be incorporated into the computer display. The remote sensing technology is not specified and can be up to the team to develop. The sensing technology should be able to operate in day time, night time and in adverse weather conditions. It should also not interfere with the ground operations nor pose an obstruction in the immediate operations area. The resolution should be within five feet of true position.
It would be desirable for the display to show a layout of the runway on the Airfield with all the ancillary equipment locations in reference to the moving position of the AV as well as the position of ground taxi crew.
U of A Team will determine what technologies and processes can be used to insure SA as a combination of both audio and visual information to protect the AV as well as an audio warnings to taxi crew.
The end result should be an audible warning mechanism for the crew such as when the AV is in take off position or when then there is an obstruction to AV movement. Also there should visual warnings on the display monitor. |
| Project summary: |
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| Disciplines: |
Mechanical Engineering (1)
Computer Engineering (2)
Electrical Engineering (1)
Optical Sciences and Engineering (1) |
| Skills: |
apply Engineering Skills to outdoors variability
Software skills to integrate various signals
Integrate various software prototcols
Scanning/detection technology investigation
Design and fabricate a demonstration model
Experimental Testing and data analysis
Presentation skills to convey results simply |
| Additional resources: |
Some additonal funding may be available to acquire sensors for testing/demonstration purposes. |
| Key Contact Name: |
Bob Rhodes |
| Key Contact Email: |
bob.rhodes@ngc.com |
| Key Contact Phone: |
520-458-0973 ext 289 |
| Project URL: |
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| Mentor Name: |
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| Mentor Email: |
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| Mentor Phone: |
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