According to the invention, a device and a method are provided for determining the position of an object, in particular a moving object, in the three-dimensional space. The device comprises at least two switchable transmitting antennas having a different vertical position of the phase center as well as a plurality of receiving antennas which are arranged in series. The transmitting antennas are arranged in the horizontal direction and at a distance that corresponds to the distance of the receiving antennas. The transmitting antennas are vertically offset with respect to each other by a value that is less than or equal to half the free-space wavelength of the transmitted signal. The transmitting antennas can otherwise be arranged at any position around the receiving antenna. Horizontal beam sweep across a wide angular range is carried out according to the method of “digital beamforming”. The measurement of the vertical object position is carried out by phase measurement between the antenna beams when the transmitting antennas are sequentially switched.

A method of synthetic representation of elements of interest in a viewing system for aircraft, the viewing system comprises location sensors, a cartographic database and a database of elements of interest, an image sensor, a unit for processing images and a unit for generating three-dimensional digital images representative of the terrain overflown and a viewing device, wherein, when the terrain overflown comprises an element of interest, the method of synthetic representation comprises: a first step of searching for and detecting the element of interest in each image of a sequence of images, and; a second step of generating three-dimensional digital images representative of the terrain overflown, the element of interest represented according to a first representation if it has not been detected in any of the images of the sequence of images and according to a second representation if it is detected.

Embodiments for a terrain following (TF) radar configured for use in an airborne system are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a radar return comprising dual polarimetry radar data is processed to determine a Correlation Coefficient (CC), a Differential Reflectivity (ZDR), and a Specific Differential Phase (KDP). Discriminator logic is applied to the CC, the ZDR and the KDP to determine whether the radar return comprises solely rain. Further signal processing may be performed on the radar return when the radar return does not comprise solely rain. When the radar signal comprises solely rain, the radar return is tagged as a rain return. Applying the discriminator logic may include applying linear and/or quadratic functions to the CC, the ZDR and the KDP to determine whether the radar return comprises solely rain.

A gimbal-assisted continuous-wave (CW) Doppler radar detection system mountable to an unmanned aircraft system may be rotated in three degrees of freedom relative to the UAS to provide targeted multidirectional obstacle detection by transmitting CW signals throughout a field of view and analyzing reflected signals from obstacles within the field of view. The radar assembly may be articulated to provide track-ahead detection in anticipation of a heading or altitude change of the UAS, to center on a detected obstacle in order to classify or identify it more clearly. The radar assembly may be rotated below the UAS and its field of view changed to increase breadth and accuracy at a shorter effective range, in order to determine real-time altitude or terrain data while the UAS executes a landing.

An apparatus is for use with an aircraft radar system having a radar antenna. The apparatus comprises processing electronics are configured to receive radar data associated with the radar antenna of the system. The processing electronics are also configured to detect periodic data associated with runway lights in the radar data.

An automatic landing system contains a control device for providing positional data for controlling an aircraft, a first position or range measuring device for detecting first positional data of the aircraft, a second position or range measuring device for detecting second positional data of the aircraft, and a sensor device for detecting sensor data from which a direction in which a landmark is located and/or a distance of the landmark to the aircraft can be determined. The control device may be configured to generate, based on the first positional data, a first hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark and, based on the second positional data, a second hypothesis for the direction and distance of the landmark. Moreover, the control device may be configure to confirm or discard the first hypothesis and the second hypothesis, respectively, using the sensor data detected by the sensor device.

Systems and methods of precision landing in adverse conditions are provided. In one embodiment, a precision landing system comprises a vehicle including: a receiver configured to receive position information for structures and a landing zone of a landing site and a processor coupled to a memory, the memory includes three-dimensional geometric structural information for a landing site. The processor configured to: receive the position information from the receiver; assign geographical coordinates to the three-dimensional geometric structural information using the position information for the structures and the landing zone of the landing site; send the three-dimensional geometric structural information and graphical rendering information to a display device. The vehicle further includes a display device, wherein the display device is configured to render and display a three-dimensional representation of the landing site in real-time based on the three-dimension geometric structural information and the graphical rendering information from the processor.

A device for checking the consistency of a positioning includes: a transmitter, a receiver, a time measuring unit, a distance determining module and a check module. The transmitter emits at least one signal, and the receiver receives at least four response signals from at least four different response elements. A response element receives the at least one signal and, upon receipt, emits a response signal. The time measuring unit determines, for each response signal, a total delay time from a transmission time of the signal and a reception time of the respective signal. The distance determination module determines a distance to the respective response element based on each total delay time, and the check module performs a consistency check of a determination of a position based on distances to the different response elements. With the device, erroneous distance values may be detected in ground-based positioning systems.

A vehicle such as a helicopter may scan a scene using a transmitter mounted on a rotating part like a rotor and a receiver mounted on a body of the vehicle. Based on a Doppler shift caused by the rotation of the rotating part, patterns may be recorded and used to develop a holographic image of the scene.

Techniques are disclosed for a decentralized path and motion planning of autonomous agents within an environment. The planning may include determining if an active neighboring autonomous agent is present and selectively controlling the autonomous agent to operation in in an independent path planning operation mode and in a coordinating path planning operation mode, based on the detection of the neighboring agent(s).