FOD Detection Method Based on Iterative Adaptive Approach for Millimeter-Wave Radar

Abstract

Using millimeter-wave radar to scan and detect small foreign object debris (FOD) on an airport runway surface is a popular solution in civil aviation safety. Since it is impossible to completely eliminate the interference reflections arising from strongly scattering targets or non-homogeneous clutter after clutter cancellation processing, the consequent high false alarm probability has become a key problem to be solved. In this article, we propose a new FOD detection method for interference suppression and false alarm reduction based on an iterative adaptive approach (IAA) algorithm, which is a non-parametric, weighted least squares-based iterative adaptive processing approach that can provide super-resolution capability. Specifically, we first obtain coarse FOD target information by data preprocessing in a conventional detection method. Then, a refined data processing step is conducted based on the IAA algorithm in the azimuth direction. Finally, multiple pieces of information from the two steps above are used to comprehensively distinguish false alarms by fusion processing; thus, we can acquire accurate FOD target information. Real airport data measured by a 93 GHz radar are used to validate the proposed method. Experimental results of the test scene, which include golf balls with a diameter of 43 mm, were placed about 300 m away from radar, which show that the proposed method can effectively reduce the number of false alarms when compared with a traditional FOD detection method. Although metal balls with a diameter of 50 mm were placed about 660 m away from radar, they also can obtain up to 2.2 times azimuth super-resolution capability.

Research on airport runway foreign object debris detection technology based on improved YOLOv7

“…Where the  represents the degree of concern for shape loss, defined as its range [2,6], and   , h  , x  , y  , and  are defined as shown in Formulas ( 10) through ( 13), , max( , ) max( , )…”

“…Zhang L [1] used arc synthetic aperture radar and establishes signal simulation model to realize foreign object detection. Wan Y [2] used an iterative adaptive algorithm based on millimeter wave radar to obtain accurate FOD target information. Li S [3] used a FOD detection method with millimeter wave radar combined with night vision camera, which detects foreign objects by detecting runway edge and modeling runway background.…”

“…The authors of SimAM mentioned that there is spatial inhibition in neural network, and active neurons should be given higher weights, so they proposed a method to calculate the three-dimensional weight of neurons by means of energy functions. The definition of energy function * ( ) e t is shown in Formulas (1) to ( 3), where t is the value of the input feature, 2  and 2  respectively represent the mean and variance of neurons in each channel of the feature map, M represents the number of neurons in each channel of the feature map, and  represents the hyperparameter, which is set to 0.0001 here.…”

A W‐band dual‐beam low side‐lobe level antenna with shared slotted waveguide arrays

“…W-band radar has been rapidly developed and applied as a result of the breakthroughs in millimetre wave (MMW) devices and the development of antenna technology. It is widely used in long-distance and high resolution applications that require short wavelengths, small spaces, and wide available bandwidth, such as in communication, automotive, security inspection, UAV, space landing, and cloud detection [1][2][3][4].…”

Foreign object debris detection based on improved YOLOv5 algorithm

“…Therefore, it is valuable to study the detection algorithm of airport FOD. A variety of FOD detection systems have been used abroad, including the Singapore iFerret system 1 , the British Tarsier system, the Israeli FODetect system, and the US FOD Finder system, while domestic airport runways are still manually detected. This method needs to close the runway during the inspection, which not only reduces the airport capacity, but also is restricted by the inspector's quality and weather conditions, and it is difficult to ensure sufficient detection rate 2 .…”