Abstract: Piloted or autonomous rotorcraft includes a rotor safety system. The rotor safety system comprises a lidar scanner toward a rotor of the rotorcraft, e.g., the tail rotor, that scans the 3D space in the vicinity of the rotor. Objects in the vicinity of the rotor are detected from the lidar point data. In a piloted rotorcraft, predictive warnings can be provided to the helicopter's flight crew when a detected object presents a hazard to the rotor of the rotorcraft.

Abstract: A computerized, on-board flight system for an aircraft has a landing-zone evaluation system for evaluating a landing zone for the aircraft based on sensory data from numerous sensing systems, including lidar, radar, and/or various cameras, to identify potential, suitable landing sites in the landing zone. Based on data from these sensory systems, the landing-zone evaluation system geometrically and semantically evaluates the landing zone's terrain, as well as identifies moving and stationary objects in the landing zone to identify the suitable landing sites for the aircraft.

Abstract: A system and method for selectively reducing or filtering data provided by one or more vehicle mounted sensors before using that data to detect, track and/or estimate a stationary object located along the side of a road, such as a guardrail or barrier. According to one example, the method reduces the amount of data by consolidating, classifying and pre-sorting data points from several forward looking radar sensors before using those data points to determine if a stationary roadside object is present. If the method determines that a stationary roadside object is present, then the reduced or filtered data points can be applied to a data fitting algorithm in order to estimate the size, shape and/or other parameters of the object. In one example, the output of the present method is provided to automated or autonomous driving systems.

Abstract: Navigation systems and methods communicate a landing location to an aircraft. The method comprises collecting data from multiple sensor systems of the aircraft over time while the aircraft is above the terrain. The method also comprises determining on-going pose estimates of the aircraft over time based on input data from the multiple sensor systems. The method further comprises detecting a non-natural marker in the image data from the camera system, with the non-natural marker being physically located on the terrain at a desired landing location for the aircraft. The method further comprises determining a bearing of the non-natural marker relative to the aircraft from the image data captured by the camera system. The method comprises determining a location of the non-natural marker in a global coordinate frame based on a 3D mapping of terrain below the aircraft and the determined bearing for the marker.

Abstract: A system and method for selectively reducing or filtering data provided by one or more vehicle mounted sensors before using that data to detect, track and/or estimate a stationary object located along the side of a road, such as a guardrail or barrier. According to one example, the method reduces the amount of data by consolidating, classifying and pre-sorting data points from several forward looking radar sensors before using those data points to determine if a stationary roadside object is present. If the method determines that a stationary roadside object is present, then the reduced or filtered data points can be applied to a data fitting algorithm in order to estimate the size, shape and/or other parameters of the object. In one example, the output of the present method is provided to automated or autonomous driving systems.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for measurement association in vehicles. An object proximate a vehicle is identified. Measurements or classifications are obtained via one or more sensors. A first tracking gate is generated that is based at least in part on a characteristic of one of the sensors used to obtain the measurements or classifications. A second tracking gate is generated that is based at least on part on the first tracking gate and a measurement history.