Synthetic vision augmented with multispectral sensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10415993-B2
Application number	US-201515518406-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 14, 2014
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A method for augmenting a synthetic vision system of a vehicle includes receiving, with a processor, signals indicative of real-time sensor data of a terrain for the vehicle via one or more acquisition devices; creating, with the processor, a terrain mesh of the terrain in response to the receiving of the sensor data; correlating, with the processor, the terrain mesh with preloaded terrain data of the terrain; creating, with the processor, a multispectral image of the terrain in response to the correlating the terrain mesh with the preloaded data; and texturing, with the processor, the terrain mesh for display on a display device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for augmenting a synthetic vision system of a vehicle, comprising:
selecting one or more acquisition devices of a plurality of acquisition devices of the vehicle to capture data based on a distance of the vehicle from a target;
receiving, with a processor, signals indicative of real-time sensor data of a terrain for the vehicle via the one or more acquisition devices;
creating, with the processor, a terrain mesh of the terrain in response to the receiving of the sensor data;
correlating, with the processor, the terrain mesh with preloaded terrain data of the terrain, wherein correlating the terrain mesh with preloaded terrain data includes applying a plurality of probabilistic sensor models to the sensor data, wherein each of the plurality of probabilistic sensor models is associated with sensor data acquired from a respective acquisition device;
creating, with the processor, a multispectral image of the terrain in response to the correlating the terrain mesh with the preloaded data; and
texturing, with the processor, the terrain mesh for display on a display device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the sensor data further comprises receiving real-time terrain information external to the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising correlating the terrain mesh for features of known obstacles in the sensor data with similar features of known obstacles in the preloaded terrain data.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining a weighting factor for one or more of the known obstacles in response to the correlating the terrain mesh.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising correlating the terrain mesh for determining obstacles in the sensor data with missing obstacles in the preloaded terrain data.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising creating the terrain mesh that represents a three-dimension (3-D) image of the terrain with topographical features below the vehicle.

7. A system for augmenting a synthetic vision system of a vehicle, comprising:
one or more sensors configured to receive signals indicative of terrain information for the vehicle; and
a computer operably connected to the one or more sensors and configured to:
select one or more acquisition devices of a plurality of acquisition devices of the vehicle to capture data based on a distance of the vehicle from a target;
receive signals indicative of real-time sensor data of a terrain for the vehicle via the one or more acquisition devices;
create a terrain mesh of the terrain in response to the receiving of the sensor data;
correlate the terrain mesh with preloaded terrain data of the terrain by applying a plurality of probabilistic sensor models to the sensor data, wherein each of the plurality of probabilistic sensor models is associated with sensor data acquired from a respective acquisition device;
create a multispectral image of the terrain in response to the correlating the terrain mesh with the preloaded data; and
texture the terrain mesh for display on a display device.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to receive real-time terrain information external to the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to correlate the terrain mesh for features of known obstacles in the sensor data with similar features of known obstacles in the preloaded terrain data.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to correlate the terrain mesh for determining obstacles in the sensor data with missing obstacles in the preloaded terrain data.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a weighting factor for one or more of the known obstacles in response to the correlating the terrain mesh.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to create the terrain mesh that represents a three-dimension (3-D) image of the terrain with topographical features below the vehicle.

Assignees

• Sikorsky Aircraft Corp

Inventors

• Cherepinsky Igor
• Derenick Jason C
• Stathis Christopher

Classifications

• G01C23/00 Primary

  Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration · CPC title

• G06T17/20

  Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, {tesselation} · CPC title

• G06T1/60

  Memory management · CPC title

• G06T15/04

  Texture mapping · CPC title

• G06T15/005

  General purpose rendering architectures · CPC title