Electronic Bumper for Rotorcraft Brownout Approach and Landing

BCO’s Phase I goal is to design an electronic bumper for rotorcraft using a rugged COTS radar module that is in production in lots of 10,000 for use on automobiles. This automotive radar is a K-Band unit with a phased-array antenna that can be stepped through 140º in azimuth and which provides 20-inch range resolution. A chain of nine of the radar modules is capable of providing the hemispheric coverage sought for the electronic bumper. The projected selling price for BCO’s electronic bumper design is well within the $10,000 target. There is a tradeoff between range and update rate. When scanning out to 80 feet the hemisphere can be scanned at up to 125 times per second. With update rates of up to 3 times per second, scanning out to 490 feet is achievable. The Principle Investigator has been designing a system for automotive-vehicle detection and testing the design with production units of the radar since March of 2007. The target detection, scene analysis and hazard identification algorithms required for the electronic bumper will build on that work. The electronic bumper design will rely heavily on retrospective detection and track initiation techniques operating on stored scene time histories.