JPH09207896A - Apron guiding system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correctly and surely guide a landing aircraft to a given apron position. SOLUTION: An infrared rays image pickup device 1 is arranged, by making a nose landing or main landing wheel(s) 41 or 42 photographable, in the front of a reference line 201 for designating the forwarding direction of a landing aircraft 4 to photograph the infrared rays picture image of the nose landing of main landing wheel(s) 41 or 42 of the landing aircraft 4. By a picture image processing device 2, a reminimg distance, from the landing aircraft to a stop line 202, and a slippage from the reference line 201 are determined, based on a geometrical condition etc., including the nose landing wheel position of the main landing wheel 42 position and the interval in the infrared rays picture image, and the structure of the landing aircraft 4 and a whole arrangement to display the remaining distance and the slippage on position display device 3 arranged in a position easy to see for a pilot.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a parking guidance system, and more particularly to a parking guidance system for guiding a landing aircraft approaching a predetermined parking position at an airport.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An aircraft landing on an airport runway moves to a predetermined docking or parking position, a so-called apron, to unload passengers and luggage. In order to dock the passenger entrance / exit of the aircraft to the passenger entrance / exit facility of the airport terminal, it is necessary to accurately guide the landing aircraft to a predetermined parking position and park it.

There are various conventional parking guidance methods, and the first and most basic method is that a pilot in the cockpit operates in accordance with a signal from a guideman on the ground to stop at a predetermined position. It was a thing. That is, a reference line designating a reference approach direction corresponding to the axis and a stop line as a position for stopping the front wheels near the end of the reference line are drawn on the road surface of the approach path of the aircraft. Is located on a platform on the vehicle configured to be visible to the pilot and visually estimates the displacement of the aircraft with respect to these lines on the road surface while giving a guidance instruction with a hand signal.

In the second method, a so-called infrared laser beam whose wavelength belongs to the infrared region with respect to the body is horizontally scanned from the front of the aircraft, and the direction or the stop of the body is determined from the pattern of reflected light from the body. The deviation from the line was automatically judged, and the aircraft pilot was instructed in real time by using a predetermined display device and correction instructions. Regarding this, for example, JP-A-4-895
It is described in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 19.

In the third method, the distance between the fuselage and the stop line is measured by an inductive loop coil embedded in the road surface, and the deviation between the left and right is detected by a display that applies the parallax of the pilot. . In this regard, for example RLG Aut
omated Guid-In System: RLG & CO (USA) and Docking G
uidance System: Systems such as SAFEGATE (Sweden) are known.

In the fourth method, a reflected wave from the airframe is captured by a microwave Doppler radar and the distance between the airframe and the stop line is measured, and the left and right deviations are displayed by applying the parallax of the pilot. Had detected. In this regard, for example, Aircraft Parking & Information System: FMT
Systems such as (Sweden) are known.

In the fifth method, the load sensor embedded in the road surface measures the distance from the fuselage to the stop line and the lateral deviation. Regarding this, for example, JP-A-60
No. 196900.

[0008]

The above-mentioned first to fifth conventional methods have the following problems, respectively. The first method is a method of guiding by an operator, and has a problem that it is unavoidable that the vehicle is parked with a deviation from the reference line. The reason is that accurate guidance cannot be performed when visibility is poor. Also, the pilot can judge the displacement of the aircraft only through the hand signal of the guideman on the ground.

The second method has a problem that it is very difficult to perform image processing by detecting reflected light of the infrared laser beam applied to the machine body during the daytime and can be operated only at night. The reason is that the intensity of sunlight in the infrared region is extremely high.

Further, the third method, which utilizes the shape of the reflected light of the infrared laser light, has a problem that the accuracy is not good. The reason is that the boundary line between the area where the beam is irradiated and the area where the beam is not irradiated is very ambiguous. In addition, it is because it is more difficult to detect the reflected light because the light that hits other than the tip of the aircraft is almost irregularly reflected.

Further, the method of using the inductive loop coil or the load sensor buried in the road surface of the fourth method has a problem that installation / maintenance of equipment is difficult. The reason is that the induction coil sensor or the load sensor is embedded in the road surface, and therefore, when installed at an existing airport, it is likely to be accompanied by many restrictions. Further, since the induction coil sensor and the load sensor installed on the road surface are heavily stressed, there are many accidents that cause disconnection. Therefore, it is necessary to limit the operation of the road surface and repair each time the disconnection occurs. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide a groove on the road surface and add an induction coil sensor or load sensor or change the installation position every time an aircraft model is added or a stop position is changed.

Further, the method of using the microwave Doppler radar, which is the fifth method, has a problem that the possibility of causing electrical interference is unavoidable. The reason is that a lot of radio equipment is used at the airport.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
It enables accurate guidance without any special work on an aircraft or road surface, and is smaller, lighter in weight, lower in power consumption, and simpler in construction than a system that measures the shape of the reflected light of infrared laser light. It is an object of the present invention to provide a highly reliable parking guidance system capable of significantly increasing operability and maintainability.

[0014]

The parking guide system of the present invention has the following means configuration to achieve the above object. That is, the first configuration of the parking guidance system of the present invention is
A parking guidance system, which guides a landing aircraft proceeding to a predetermined parking position at an airport, having the following configurations (a) to (c). (A) A landing aircraft that is placed ahead of the reference line that specifies the approach direction of the landing aircraft and that is proceeding to park with the stop line set at the end of the reference line as a target while checking the reference line. Infrared imaging device for imaging the front wheel or rear wheel with infrared rays (b) Extracting the image of the front wheel or rear wheel of the landing aircraft from the infrared image of the landing aircraft acquired by the infrared imaging device, and extracting the front wheel or the rear wheel An image processing device for evaluating the current position of the landing aircraft including the deviation from the reference line and the remaining distance to the stop line based on the image of the wheel (c) Regarding the current position of the landing aircraft evaluated by the image processing device Position display device for displaying information at a position in front of the ground in the traveling direction of the landing aircraft and at a position easily visible to the pilot

In a second configuration of the present invention, in the first configuration, the landing is performed based on an infrared image acquired by one infrared imaging device arranged in front of an approach direction along the reference line. It has a configuration for extracting images of front wheels or rear wheels of an aircraft.

A third structure of the present invention is the infrared imaging device according to the first structure, wherein the two infrared imaging devices are arranged symmetrically with respect to the reference line in front of an approach direction along the reference line. The image of the front wheels and the rear wheels of the landing aircraft is extracted based on the infrared image acquired in (1).

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An aircraft that has entered and landed at an airport is moved to a predetermined docking or parking position for unloading passengers and luggage, and then stopped, and the passenger entrance / exit of the aircraft is docked at the passenger exit / entry facility of the airport terminal. And unload passengers and luggage to complete flight operations. For this reason, it is necessary to accurately guide the landing aircraft to a predetermined parking position, such as manual guidance, guidance using aircraft scanning with infrared laser light or microwaves, inductive loop coil embedded in the road surface, Although guidance using a load sensor is used, as described above, each of the guidance methods has a problem.

In the parking guidance system according to the present invention, the front wheel or the rear wheel of the aircraft is extracted from the image of the infrared imaging device, and the deviation from the reference line designating the approach reference direction to the landing aircraft or the stop line designating the stop position. The embodiment of the invention is to measure the current position and display the current position of the aircraft at a position where the pilot can easily see and to park the aircraft with high accuracy.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention including a partial plan view. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the landing aircraft is imaged by one infrared imaging device, the front wheels or the rear wheels of the landing aircraft are extracted from the acquired infrared image, and the landing aircraft is based on the positions of the extracted front wheels and rear wheels. Infrared imaging in which the deviation of the aircraft from the reference line and the remaining distance to the stop line are evaluated and displayed to the pilot, for example, a traveling aircraft is arranged in front of the reference line so that the aircraft including front wheels or rear wheels can be imaged. The device 1 and the infrared image pickup device 1 are arranged in the vicinity of the infrared image pickup device 1, and the front wheel or the rear wheel of the landing aircraft is extracted from the infrared image acquired by the infrared image pickup device 1 to determine the deviation from the reference line of the landing aircraft and the distance to the stop line. The image processing apparatus 2 for rating and the position display apparatus 3 for displaying the rating result of the image processing apparatus 2 in a format that is easy for the pilot to see are shown in FIG. Shown together shown.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. The light-receiving field of view 101 of the infrared imaging device 1 installed in front of the approaching direction of the landing aircraft 4 is set so that the front wheels 41 or the rear wheels 42 are included in the field of view until the landing aircraft 4 moves forward and reaches the position of the stop line 202. It is set. Infrared imaging device 1
The infrared image signal 1001 acquired in step 1 is guided to the image processing device 2.

When the front wheel 41 is to be extracted, the image processing device 2 detects the deviation ΔX from the reference line 201 of the front wheel 41 and the stop line 202 based on the position information of the front wheel 41 included in the input infrared image signal 1001. The remaining distance is evaluated, and the evaluation result 2001 is sent to the position display device 3 and displayed on the pilot.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a first example of a display screen of the evaluation result of the image processing apparatus 2 of FIG. 1 for the front wheels.
Next, the processing contents of the image processing apparatus 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a bird's-eye view of the landing aircraft 4 from above in front of the reference line 201. The temperature of the front wheel 41 rises remarkably due to frictional heat just after landing, and the infrared radiation intensity obtained by the infrared imaging device 1 is large because the constituent rubber is high in emissivity. Only the signal level is high. Focusing on this, only the front wheels can be extracted by a simple binarization process. When attention is paid to the tire of the front wheel 41, the position of the front wheels 41 on the infrared images, the position of the landing aircraft 4 with respect to the reference line 201 and the stop line 202 can be measured, deviation ΔX and the remaining distance A _m,
It can be expressed by Y _m .

The position display device 3 displays the display content shown in FIG. 2 at a position where the pilot can easily see it and in an appropriate size so that the pilot can see it accurately and easily. However, in the display contents in the present embodiment, the numeral symbols and subscripts included in FIG. 2 are excluded.

In this way, it is possible to accurately position the position of a front wheel tire that is tinged with high temperature caused by friction with the runway surface of the landing aircraft 4 when landing and an infrared image having excellent extractability. Become. Further, as described above, the infrared image processing focusing on the high temperature front tires significantly increases the S / N ratio in the image processing, which enables effective operation in the daytime.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a second example of the display screen of the evaluation result of the image processing apparatus 2 in which the rear wheel is the extraction target in the first embodiment. In this case, the target extraction target is the tire of the rear wheel 42 surrounded by a frame, and by measuring the distance between the rear wheels 42 on the infrared image, the distance between the rear wheels 42 and the front wheels 41 depending on the aircraft model. Since the positional relationship is determined, the distance of the aircraft to the infrared imaging device 1, that is, the remaining distance to the stop line 202 and the left / right deviation ΔX with respect to the reference line 201 can be measured.

In the case of FIG. 3, two rear wheels are symmetrically arranged about the axle, and two rear wheels are symmetrically arranged. However, when the number of rear wheels is large, the outermost single or pair of tires should be targeted. Etc. can be processed in the same manner. The rating result thus obtained is displayed to the pilot in the same manner as the rating result of FIG.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram shown including a partial top view. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the front wheels of the landing aircraft are extracted from the infrared images obtained by imaging the landing aircraft with two infrared imaging devices symmetrically arranged about the reference line. The position of the landing aircraft is calculated based on the distance between the two infrared imaging devices, and the distance to the stop line and the deviation from the reference line are evaluated and displayed on the pilot, for example. A pair of infrared imaging devices 1a,
1b, an image processing device 5 that obtains the position of the landing aircraft from the infrared images acquired by the infrared imaging devices 1a and 1b, and evaluates the remaining distance to the stop line and the deviation from the reference line, and the output of the image processing device 5. And a position display device 6 for displaying,
The landing aircraft 4 is also shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described. Since the arrangement interval between the two infrared imaging devices 1a and 1b is known, a front wheel including this and the infrared image signals 1002 and 1003 obtained by imaging with the two infrared imaging devices 1a and 1b.
The position of the landing aircraft can be evaluated by calculation from the position of 41, and the evaluation result 5001 is supplied to the position display device 6, and the display format shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 is obtained as in the case of the first embodiment of FIG. Will be displayed to the pilot at. As described above, the landing aircraft can be guided to the predetermined parking position accurately and promptly.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a parking guidance system for guiding a landing aircraft at an airport to a predetermined parking position, one parking vehicle or a symmetrical vehicle arranged in front of the landing aircraft in the traveling reference direction. By imaging the landing aircraft with the two infrared imaging devices arranged, extracting the front wheel or the rear wheel from the captured image, and visually displaying to the pilot the deviation from the travel reference line and the remaining distance to the stop line, The following effects can be secured.

The first effect is that it is possible to park the vehicle with higher accuracy than the method of visual inspection by the guide member, and even when the visibility is poor. Furthermore, the pilot can visually confirm the displacement of the aircraft from the displayed contents. The second effect is that it is more reliable than the method using the shape of the reflected light of infrared laser light and can be operated during the daytime. The reason is that the tires of the aircraft immediately after landing are extremely hot, and there is a temperature difference that can be sufficiently discriminated from the road surface temperature. The third effect is that the reliability is higher than that of the method using the shape of the reflected light of the infrared laser light. The reason is similar to the reason for the second effect, the tires of the aircraft immediately after landing are extremely hot, and there is a temperature difference that can be sufficiently distinguished from the road surface temperature. It is easy to do.

The fourth effect is that installation and maintenance are excellent. The reason is that only one or more infrared imaging devices are installed in the front direction of the front wheels or rear wheels, and there are no buried objects such as sensors on the road surface. Therefore, even when adding aircraft models or changing stop positions. Because it can be easily handled and there is no hindrance to the operation of the existing airport. The fifth effect is that it is possible to eliminate the problem of energy interference occurring when the microwave Doppler radar is used. The reason is that microwave is not used as a medium.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention including a partial plan view.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a first example of a display screen of evaluation results of the image processing device 2 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a second example of a display screen of evaluation results of the image processing device 2 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention including a partial plan view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 infrared imaging device 1a infrared imaging device 1b infrared imaging device 2 image processing device 3 position display device 4 landing aircraft 5 image processing device 6 position display device 41 front wheel 42 rear wheel 101 light receiving field 201 reference line 202 stop line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A parking guidance system comprising the following components for guiding a landing aircraft traveling to a predetermined parking position at an airport. (A) A landing aircraft that is placed ahead of the reference line that specifies the approach direction of the landing aircraft and that is proceeding to park with the stop line set at the end of the reference line as a target while checking the reference line. Infrared imaging device for imaging the front wheel or rear wheel with infrared rays (b) Extracting the image of the front wheel or rear wheel of the landing aircraft from the infrared image of the landing aircraft acquired by the infrared imaging device, and extracting the front wheel or the rear wheel An image processing device for evaluating the current position of the landing aircraft including the deviation from the reference line and the remaining distance to the stop line based on the image of the wheel (c) Regarding the current position of the landing aircraft evaluated by the image processing device Position display device for displaying information at a position in front of the ground in the traveling direction of the landing aircraft and at a position easily visible to the pilot 2. An image of a front wheel or a rear wheel of the landing aircraft is extracted based on an infrared image acquired by one infrared imaging device arranged in front of the approach direction along the reference line. The parking guidance system according to claim 1. 3. A front wheel and a rear wheel of the landing aircraft based on infrared images acquired by the two infrared imaging devices symmetrically arranged with respect to the reference line in front of the approaching direction along the reference line. The parking guidance system according to claim 1, wherein a wheel image is extracted.