Abstract:
This thesis addresses the issue of ground collision in poor weather conditions. As bad weather is an adverse factor when airplanes are taxiing, an obstacle detection system based on thermal vision is proposed to enhance the awareness of pilots during taxiing in poor weather conditions. Two infrared cameras are employed to detect the objects and estimate the distance of the obstacle. The distance is computed by stereo vision technology. A warning will be given if the distance is less than the safe distance predefined. To make the system independent, the proposed system is an on-board system which does not rely on airports or other airplanes.
The type of obstacle is classified by the temperature of the object. Fuzzy logic is employed in the classification. Obstacles are classified into three main categories: aircraft, vehicle and people. Membership functions are built based on the temperature distribution of obstacles measured at the airport. In order to improve the accuracy of classification, a concept of using position information is proposed. Different types of obstacle are predefined according to different area at the airport. In the classification, obstacles are classified according to the types limited in that area.
Due to the limitation of the thermal infrared camera borrowed, images were captured first and then processed offline. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the detecting distance error and the performance of system in poor weather conditions. The classification of obstacle is simulated with real thermal images and pseudo position information at the airport. The results suggest that the stereo vision system developed in this research was able to detect the obstacle and estimate the distance. The classification method classified the obstacles to a certain extent. Therefore, the proposed system can improve safety of aircraft and enhance situational awareness of pilots.
The programming language of the system is Python 2.7. Computer graphic library OpenCV 2.3 is used in processing images. MATLAB is used in the simulation of obstacle classification.
