Runway activity monitoring, logging and analysis for aircraft touchdown detection and abnormal behavior alerting

Abstract

A system of automatically documenting a plurality of aircraft touchdown events detected by analyzing sensory data received from a plurality of sensors, comprising one or more interfaces for connecting to a plurality of sensors deployed to monitor at least part of a runway in an airport, the sensors comprising one or more image sensors, audio sensors and/or vibration sensors, and one or more processors coupled to the one or more interfaces. The processor(s) is adapted to receive sensory data from said plurality of sensors, the sensory data comprising image data, audio data and/or vibration data, identify a timing and a location of a landing touchdown event of an aircraft on the runway by analyzing the sensory data and classify the landing touchdown event as a normal landing touchdown event or an abnormal landing touchdown event based on the analysis.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system of automatically documenting a plurality of aircraft touchdown events detected by analyzing sensory data received from a plurality of sensors, comprising:
 at least one interface for connecting to a plurality of sensors deployed to monitor at least part of a runway in an airport, said plurality of sensors comprising at least one of: an image sensor, an audio sensor and a vibration sensor; and   at least one processor coupled to said at least one interface, said at least one processor is adapted to:
 receive sensory data from said plurality of sensors, said sensory data comprising at least one of: image data, audio data and vibration data, 
 identify a timing and a location of a landing touchdown event of an aircraft on said runway by analyzing said sensory data, and 
 classify said landing touchdown event as a normal landing touchdown event or an abnormal landing touchdown event based on said analysis. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said timing is identified with an accuracy of 1 second and said location is identified with an accuracy of 10 meters. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to:
 store at least part of said sensory data relating to said landing touchdown event based on said timing, and   log said timing and said location in association with said aircraft landing touchdown event.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said analysis comprises image processing of said image data to identify a smoke pattern next to at least one wheel of said aircraft in said image data. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said analysis comprises signal processing of said audio data to identify an aircraft touchdown sound pattern in said audio data. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said analysis comprises signal processing of said vibration data to identify a predefined pitch pattern in said vibration data, said pitch pattern is indicative of said landing touchdown event. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising said sensory data comprising at least two of: said image data, said audio data and said vibration data. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to receive documentary data relating to said runway from at least one system of said airport, said documentary data is time tagged at a time of reception and synchronized with said sensory data in a timeline sequence,
 wherein said at least one system is a member selected from a group consisting of: a runway lighting control system, a weather monitoring system, a runway surface monitoring system, a traffic management system and a foreign objects detection system.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to calculate an estimated taxiway exit said aircraft takes following said landing touchdown event to leave said runway to a taxiway,
 wherein said calculation is based on at least some of: a weight of said aircraft, a speed of said aircraft while approaching said runway, a wind speed at said runway, a wind direction at said runway and a friction of said runway induced by at least one weather condition.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to analyze said sensory data to detect an actual taxiway exit said aircraft takes following said landing touchdown event to leave said runway to a taxiway. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to generate an alert on detection of at least one discrepancy of said actual taxiway exit compared to a planned taxiway exit. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to graphically display a timeline sequence consisting of at least part of said sensory data. 
     
     
         13 . A computerized method of automatically documenting a plurality of aircraft touchdown events detected by analyzing sensory data received from a plurality of sensors, comprising:
 receiving sensory data from a plurality of sensors deployed to monitor at least part of a runway in an airport, said sensory data comprising at least one of: image data received from at least one image sensor, audio data received from at least one audio sensor and vibration data received from at least one vibration sensor;   identifying a timing and a location of a landing touchdown event of an aircraft on said runway by analyzing said sensory data; and   classifying said landing touchdown event as a normal landing touchdown event or an abnormal landing touchdown event based on said analysis.   
     
     
         14 . The computerized method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 storing at least part of said sensory data relating to said landing touchdown event based on said timing, and   logging said timing and said location in association with said aircraft landing touchdown event.   
     
     
         15 . A system of automatically documenting a plurality of aircraft activity events at a runway to detect hazardous conditions indicative of a potential abnormal phenomenon during at least one of said plurality of aircraft activity events, comprising:
 at least one interface for connecting to a plurality of sensors deployed to monitor at least part of a runway in an airport, said plurality of sensors comprising at least one of: an image sensor, an audio sensor and a vibration sensor; and   at least one processor coupled to said at least one interface, said at least one processor is adapted to:
 receive sensory data from said plurality of sensors, said sensory data comprising at least one of: image data, audio data and vibration data, 
 detect at least one hazardous condition indicative of a potential abnormal phenomenon during at least one of a plurality of aircraft activity events at said runway by analyzing said sensory data, and 
 store at least part of said sensory data relating to said at least one hazardous condition. 
   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , further comprising said sensory data comprising at least two of: said image data, said audio data and said vibration data. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein each of said plurality of aircraft activity events is a member selected from a group consisting of: an aircraft landing, an aircraft take-off and an aircraft taxi. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein said at least one hazardous condition detected by said analysis is a member selected from a group consisting of: a contact between a body part of said aircraft and said runway, a fire in proximity to at least one engine of said aircraft, a smoke in proximity to said at least one engine, a smoke in proximity to said at least one wheel, a non-typical pattern of movement of said aircraft on said runway and a non-typical position or angle of said aircraft with respect to said runway. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein said at least one processor is further adapted to graphically display a timeline sequence consisting of at least part of said sensory data. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein said analysis comprises applying at least one classifier on at least some of said sensory data, said at least one classifier is trained to detect said at least one hazardous condition.