A multimodal sensor system for runway debris detection

For foreign object detection on runways, highly sensitive radar sensors give the opportunity to detect even very small objects, metallic and non-metallic, also under adverse weather conditions. As it is desirable for airport applications to install only small but robust installations along the traffic areas, millimeter-wave radars offer the advantage of small antenna apertures and miniaturized system hardware. A 220-GHz radar was developed, which is capable to serve this application, if several of these are netted to cover the whole traffic area. Although under fortunate conditions the radar allows a classification or even an identification of the debris, the complete system design incorporates 3-D time-of-flight cameras for assistance in the identification process, which are also distributed along the traffic areas. The system approach further relies upon a change detection algorithm on the netted information to discriminate non-stationary alarms and reduce the false alarm ratio.