“Airplane Collision Avoidance” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20150262492)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- A patent application by the inventors Barnes, Megan D. (Cypress, TX); Delk, Michael W. (Salem, OR); Tutwiler, Richard L. (Port Matilda, PA); Durkin, John R. (Port Matilda, PA); Barnes, JR., David E. (Cypress, TX), filed on March 17, 2015, was made available online on September 24, 2015, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by VerticalNews correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "A major cause of incidents at airports occurs during movement of airplanes or vehicles around other airplanes or objects. This annually causes significant claims to insurance companies as well as to airplane owners, fixed base operators, and airlines. To reduce the number of incidents, operators at airports have required workers to walk under the wings of an airplane under tow to identify prospective collisions before they occur, referred to as 'wing walkers.'

"The implementation of wing walkers has reduced the number of incidents, but requires staff resources and is quite expensive. In order to view the various portions of an airplane at risk of collision, two wing walkers may be required at both wing tips of the airplane and for larger airplanes a third walker may be located at the tail of the airplane. The multiple wing walkers may be in addition to an operator of the tug towing the airplane. Additionally, personnel located at or near the ground level may not be able to accurately judge the relative height of an oncoming object with a wing or tail which can be dozens of feet up in the air.

"Further, communication among the wing walkers and the operator of the tug may be a challenge. Due to the amount of noise at airports, communication between the wing walkers and the operator is often limited to physical motions or whistles being blown by the wing walkers as the airplane is approaching an object. Visually, it may be difficult for the operator to maintain a line of sight with the wing walkers to perceive the physical motions. Similarly, when using whistles, there is a chance that the whistles will be drowned out by other noises, or that the operator may mistake a whistle associated with another airplane under tow. Accordingly, it can be difficult to move multiple airplanes within the same vicinity.

"The present application addresses these and other problems."

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, VerticalNews journalists also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "A collision avoidance system for an airplane under tow is disclosed herein. The system may include a sensing device configured to capture image data of at least a portion of the airplane and an object while the airplane is being towed. The sensing device may be located remotely to both the airplane and the object. Positions of two or more features of the airplane may be determined based on the image data. A bounding box encompassing the airplane may be generated based, at least in part, on the positions of the two or more features. Additionally, based on a comparison of the position of an object relative to the bounding box, it may be determined whether the object is within a predetermined distance from the airplane.

"A method of towing an airplane is disclosed herein. The method may include capturing image data of at least a portion of the airplane and an object while the airplane is being towed. The sensing device may be located remotely to both the airplane and the object. Positions of two or more features of the airplane as well as the position of the object may be determined based on the image data. The method may further comprise generating a bounding box encompassing the airplane based, at least in part, on the positions of the two or more features, and determining whether the object is within a predetermined distance from the airplane based on a comparison of the position of the object relative to the bounding box.

"A collision avoidance system for an aircraft under tow is disclosed herein. The system may include a sensing device configured to capture image data of at least a portion of the aircraft and an object while the aircraft is being towed. A processing device may be configured to determine, based on the image data, a first distance from the sending device to the feature and a second distance from the sensing device to the position of the object. The processing device may be further configured to determine, based at least in part on the first distance, a position of the feature, and generate a bounding box that encompasses the airplane based, at least in part, on the position of the feature. A position of the object may be determined based on the second distance. Additionally, the processing device may be configured to determine whether the object is within a predetermined distance from the aircraft based on a comparison of the position of the obstacle relative to the bounding box.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

"FIG. 1 illustrates an example airplane collision avoidance system (ACAS) including a first sensing device and a second sensing device.

"FIG. 2 illustrates an example ACAS configured to monitor an airplane.

"FIG. 3A illustrates a top view of an example mounting structure for an imaging assembly.

"FIG. 3B illustrates a geometric view of the example imaging assembly of FIG. 3A.

"FIG. 4 illustrates an example bounding box encompassing an airplane.

"FIG. 5 illustrates a perspective view of the example bounding box of FIG. 4.

"FIG. 6 illustrates an example ACAS mounted on a tug.

"FIG. 7 illustrates an example display of an ACAS.

"FIG. 8 illustrates an example process of an ACAS process.

"FIG. 9A illustrates another example mounting structure for an imaging assembly.

"FIG. 9B illustrates a geometric view of the example imaging assembly of FIG. 9A.

"FIG. 10A illustrates another example mounting structure for an imaging assembly.

"FIG. 10B illustrates a geometric view of the example imaging assembly of FIG. 10A.

"FIG. 11 illustrates a tug mounted with an example ACAS.

"FIG. 12 illustrates an example ACAS mounted on a tug with an airplane located directly behind the tug.

"FIG. 13 illustrates the example ACAS of FIG. 12 with the airplane located at an angle to the tug.

"FIG. 14 illustrates the example ACAS of FIG. 12 with the sensing device rotated.

"FIG. 15 illustrates the example ACAS of FIG. 12 with the sensing device rotated to align with the fuselage of the airplane.

"FIG. 16 illustrates an example ACAS with an expanded field of view mounted on a tug.

"FIG. 17 illustrates another example ACAS mounted on a tug.

"FIG. 18 illustrates an example ACAS mounted on an airplane.

"FIG. 19 illustrates an example user display of an ACAS."

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Barnes, Megan D.; Delk, Michael W.; Tutwiler, Richard L.; Durkin, John R.; Barnes, JR., David E. Airplane Collision Avoidance. Filed March 17, 2015 and posted September 24, 2015. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=2361&p=48&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20150917.PD.&OS=PD/20150917&RS=PD/20150917

Keywords for this news article include: Patents.

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