Solving the problem of flying in DVE for helicopter pilots

Solving the problem of flying
in DVE for helicopter pilots
Brown-out, white-out or zero-light conditions
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
Contents
Executive summary................................................................................................................ 3 Challenges when flying a helicopter in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) ............... 3 Solution – Complementing human eyesight in helicopters ............................................... 4 What to look for in a solution ................................................................................................ 4 How is the information displayed.............................................................................................. 4 How well does the solution detect obstacles and terrain .......................................................... 5 Look for standard and modular ................................................................................................ 5 Check the compatibilities and the roadmap ............................................................................. 5 Achieving optimal situational awareness ............................................................................ 6 New senses from SferiSense ................................................................................................... 7 Flying or landing in DVE with SferiAssist ................................................................................. 7 Navigational aid from SferiAdvise ............................................................................................ 8 Record, transfer, and analyse missions with SferiRec ............................................................. 8 The “new senses” and flying/landing assistance in more detail ....................................... 9 SferiSense detects obstacles very reliably ............................................................................... 9 SferiSense displays obstacles in a clear way........................................................................... 9 SferiSense provides guidance to the pilot .............................................................................. 10 SferiAssist for pilot assistance during all flight phases ........................................................... 11 The reliable choice ............................................................................................................... 13 White Paper
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Executive summary
Search and Rescue (SAR) teams and Special Operation Forces flying helicopters face a
number of safety challenges because they have to fly at low altitudes and also in degraded
visual environments (DVE), such as brown-out, white-out, and zero-light conditions.
This document describes how today’s technologies can improve the helicopter pilots’ safety
and help solve their problem of DVE. Where human eyesight alone is not enough, powerful
software can process and combine information from sensors, databases and data links and
present it in visual format.
Challenges when flying a helicopter in
Degraded Visual Environments (DVE)
Obstacles in the flight path or close to the flight path can be a threat to helicopters. Such obstacles may be power lines, aerial cableways, pylons, single trees and towers. The threat of
collision increases when the pilot has to fly at low level and/or in DVE, such as brown-out,
white-out, and zero-light conditions.
For example, a night mission poses the following challenges for Search and Rescue teams
and Special Operation Forces flying helicopters:
•
There may be a very short time for pre-planning. Often not even the landing site coordinates are known. Therefore, the crew has to edit the flight plan while the helicopter is already flying.
•
Even with known coordinates, the terrain and/or conditions at the landing site may be
unknown.
•
Reconnaissance and tactical information may not be complete.
•
Flying at low level at night is extremely challenging. There may be obstacles such as
cable spans or masts; the terrain may be rising, or the pilot is flying above a jungle or
forest.
•
Degraded Visual Environment is a constant threat. Sudden changes in weather conditions may bring on a snow storm, heavy rain, or fog.
•
It may not be possible to do a fly-by for reconnaissance, so the pilot needs to find and
select a suitable landing spot at the first approach, possibly in DVE.
•
The pilot may have to land within a confined area and/or in brown-out or white-out
conditions.
The helicopter pilot needs to be able to fly even in degraded visual environments. There are
clear requirements for situational awareness in all flight phases.
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
Solution – Complementing human
eyesight in helicopters
Today’s technologies can help solve the problem of degraded visual environments (DVE) for
helicopter pilots. Where human eyesight alone is not enough, special software can process
and combine information from advanced sensors, information from databases and information arriving via data links and present it in practical, easy to understand visual format.
In degraded visual environments, a special system set up in the helicopter can generate visual cues for the pilot. In the most extreme cases, the pilot can fly the helicopter while it would
be impossible to fly without the visual aids. In any case, the visual cues can make flying easier. This results in better flight safety and certainty of mission success.
What to look for in a solution
The helicopter pilot needs to be aware of the surroundings in all flight phases. Where human
eyesight fails to give a complete picture, sensors can provide the necessary information that
can then be displayed to the pilot.
When choosing a situational awareness solution, it is important to consider at least the following criteria:
•
How is the information displayed
•
How well does the solution detect obstacles and terrain
•
Adherence to standards; modularity
•
Compatibilities and future developments.
How is the information displayed
The situational awareness solution that gathers and processes the sensor information must
be able to present the relevant parts visually and show:
•
Important environmental elements such as ground obstacles, the terrain, weather and
traffic conditions
•
Spatial elements such as current position, altitude, attitude, velocity and drift
•
Tactical elements such as the position of important targets, surveillance information,
reconnaissance information.
An effective, efficient sensor alone is not enough to support the pilot during the approach and
landing in DVE; there are requirements for the human machine interface (HMI) as well. The
pilot needs to see the sensor’s data, not as such, but presented in easily and quickly understood, visual form.
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How well does the solution detect obstacles and terrain
Helicopter pilots need a reliable obstacle warning and terrain awareness system in all visibility conditions. When choosing such a system, the critical parameter to look for is the probability of detection for obstacles. In other words, the system must detect all threatening obstacles very reliably, and it should also not indicate obstacles where there are none.
The probability of detection for obstacles needs to be high, and it also needs to be valid
within the shortest possible time frame.
Look for standard and modular
The best situational awareness solutions for helicopter pilots are based on standard and certified building blocks for software and hardware. Choosing a solution designed and tailored
for one particular type of helicopter and hardware may be tempting, but such solutions will
then not benefit from development and innovations made for other installations.
At the same time, choosing a modular solution that works on different platforms gives the
best match to operational requirements while keeping the overall solution optimally priced.
Modularity also means that the already installed software and hardware can be upgraded
later with new functions and sensors if the operational requirements change.
When you stick to standards across the fleet, you can save money and effort in integration,
maintenance, training, and upgrades during the system’s lifecycle. The best solution will suit
your fleet of helicopters even if they are of different types.
Check the compatibilities and the roadmap
Select a supplier whose system can also be combined with equipment from other manufacturers.
You can save money by re-using the already integrated pieces of equipment, such as the
radar altimeter, navigation system or basic avionics.
Check that there is potential for further improvements and upgrades, so you can get the
benefits of new functions later.
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
Achieving optimal situational
awareness
The Sferion® system from Airbus Defence and Space is the optimal solution to the problems
that helicopter pilots have when flying in degraded visual environments (DVE). In the complete Sferion system:
•
The helicopter “gets new senses” thanks to SferiSense®.
•
The pilot can use SferiAssist® when flying or landing in DVE conditions.
•
The helicopter pilot gets navigational aid from SferiAdvise®, which also supports in
mission management.
•
Flights and missions can be recorded, transferred and analysed using SferiRec®.
In the Sferion set of products, each contributes to the overall situational awareness. You can
choose a single one according to your operational needs, or you can get the benefits of several or all of them, integrated into a single Sferion system.
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New senses from SferiSense
SferiSense® is a 3D sensor system. It is based on very advanced laser detection and ranging technology.
SferiSense is fast and accurate: it detects the terrain, objects
and wires with a probability of more than 99.5% per second.
Thus, the helicopter pilot can be aware of threatening objects
in the flight path and of the ground level at all times.
Flying or landing in DVE with SferiAssist
SferiAssist® helps the helicopter pilot fly, land, and take off
safely in degraded visual environments – extreme conditions
such as at night, in fog, in brown-out or in white-out.
SferiAssist increases the pilot’s safety during all flight phases
and improves the certainty of mission success.
SferiAssist gets its information from the on-board databases,
from the advanced aircraft sensors and from data links. It
fuses all available information reliably and in real time so the
pilot can get visual cues.
Landing symbology
The flight management system can be coupled to SferiAssist
to allow automatic flight, approach and landing in DVE.
Pilot assistance during all flight phases
SferiAssist helps ensure safe flight during all flight phases in
DVE.he pilot can see 3D conformal visual cues on his/her
helmet-mounted display (HMD) and get better spatial awareness of the flight altitude and attitude.
360 warning display
In addition, SferiAssist gives the pilot a better idea of the helicopter’s surroundings: whether the landing zone is adequate
or not; or if there are obstacles in the flight or approach path.
SferiAssist displays fixed and moving ground obstacles 360°
around the helicopter’s landing zone.
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
Navigational aid from SferiAdvise
SferiAdvise® helps the air crews
navigate and manage their mission. It
retrieves information from on-board
databases, from the aircraft sensors
and from data links. Based on this
information, SferiAdvise provides a
situational picture of the environment,
space, and tactical aspects.
Record, transfer, and analyse missions with SferiRec
The mission lifecycle can be completed using SferiRec®
which records flight, voice and mission data, takes care of
data transfer and supports data analysis. SferiRec stores the
recorded data safely on fixed-installed or deployable crash
survival units.
The Sferion set of products is based on an open architecture and modular avionics. It uses
an ARINC 653 SW framework and provides standard and certified SW and HW building
blocks. This cross-platform architecture concept allows to:
•
Configure modular, scalable and tailored solutions according to platform configuration, operational requirements and budgetary constraints
•
Upgrade already installed solutions by adding new functions and sensors.
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The “new senses” and flying/landing
assistance in more detail
Helicopter pilots get a huge benefit from the “new senses” that SferiSense can provide. They
are thus better aware of objects in their flight path and can avoid collisions also in unknown
terrain. Helicopter pilots get additional advantages from SferiAssist in all flight phases.
SferiSense detects obstacles very reliably
Helicopter pilots need a reliable obstacle warning system. The system needs to detect the
obstacles extremely fast with an extremely high probability.
Obstacles in or close to the flight path are a threat to the helicopter. Power lines, aerial
cableways, pylons, towers. Especially when the pilot is flying at low altitudes, these threats
become more critical. The SferiSense is designed to warn the pilot reliably and in time.
SferiSense can deliver a certified probability of detection of 99.5% per second over the complete field of view. This is thanks to the deterministic scan pattern it employs and its well defined system parameters.
SferiSense displays obstacles in a clear way
SferiSense also classifies the obstacles into three classes: Wire, Pole, or Tree. This is how
the pilot’s display shows the three kinds of obstacles:
Wire class. Represented as line symbol
overlay. Power lines, phone lines, cable
car cables, and guy wires, for example.
These are objects that are long and thin
and located at least 5 m above ground.
Pole class. Represented as T symbol
overlay. Poles, pylons, towers, and polelike objects, for example. These are objects higher than 5m and significantly
higher than other nearby ground objects.
In addition, objects classified as Poles
are less than 10m wide with a width to
height ratio of < 1/5.
Tree class. Represented as a half circle
symbol overlay. Isolated trees or isolated, wider pylons, for example.
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
SferiSense provides guidance to the pilot
Safety and Contour Line
The pilot can see a dynamic Safety Line on the HMD
and optionally also on the MFD. The system calculates in real time, at a rate of 3 Hz, and the display is
animated at 25 Hz. The Safety Line helps prevent
controlled flight into terrain/objects (CFIT).
With the helicopter in flight, the Safety Line helps the
pilot avoid obstacles, objects and the ground surface. The safety margin can be adjusted between
zero and 500 feet according to operational requirements.
The system calculates the evasive trajectories over the full operating range and over full
Field-of-Regard (60° horizontally). The vertical displacement of the Safety Line is a measure
for the threat potential in front of the helicopter. The pilot simply needs to keep the flight vector above the Safety Line.
The SferiSense equipment has been tested operationally in a wide variety of DVE conditions:
in rain; in snowfall; in fog; and in light to medium smoke and dust conditions, for example.
SferiSense in rain and snowfall
Even though rain and snowfall reduce the detection range of SferiSense, it can still detect a
5-mm wire from more than 500m away even at a rain rate of 10 mm/h.
SferiSense in fog and cloud
The binocular design and active receiver management of SferiSense reduce the pseudoechoes from fog. When SferiSense normally detects a 5-mm wire at 800 m, it can still detect
it in fog at 380 m. The sensor also detects low cloud ceilings and patches of clouds and a
special algorithm filters these out.
SferiSense in dust and smoke
To improve detection in dust and smoke, the SferiSense 500 sensor employs a multi-echo
technology that uses not only the first return echo from a target but also the 2nd or the last
echo from any target. This way, the sensor can detect also within dust clouds. Tests have
been run and they clearly indicate that SferiSense can detect even remote objects such as
poles and wires while inside a dust cloud, thanks to this last echo technology.
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SferiAssist for pilot assistance during all flight phases
SferiAssist can help the pilot in all flight phases: approach and landing, take-off as well as
low-level flight..
Approach and landing in DVE is extremely challenging
In the landing phase, the helicopter pilot has to get precise landing zone information on
his/her helmet-mounted display. He/she also needs cues that help select or evaluate a landing zone. This is why the sensor has to collect enough data and be able to create an easy to
understand visual aid very quickly.
SferiAssist meets all these requirements.
SferiAssist helps choose the best landing site
SferiAssist uses the 3D data coming from SferiSense to calculate the terrain level and to
distinguish it from objects and obstacles. Therefore, it can also identify potential landing
sites. If the area looks suitably flat, free of obstacles, big enough, and with limited slope, the
SferiAssist can mark it as a potential landing area. The system can then display the potential
landing areas to the pilot for final decision.
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Solving the problem of DVE for helicopter pilots
Take-off. The pilot gets 3D visual cues
on the helmet-mounted display for better
spatial orientation.
Low-level flight. When the helicopter is
flying at low altitudes, the pilot can see a
visualization of the terrain and obstacles
either on his/her helmet-mounted display
or as full-3D visualization on the headdown display.
The pilot gets the most critical information about the helicopter’s surroundings
from the 3D visual cues on the helmetmounted display.
In addition, the head-down display can
show the terrain, obstacles, man-made
objects and navigation cues such as
waypoints, rivers and streets as 3D Advanced Synthetic Vision.
SferiAssist identifies objects
SferiAssist uses the 3D data coming from
SferiSense to identify man-made objects.
For this ,it uses the typical geometric
features of houses, walls, or cranes and
displays these to the pilot.
SferiAssist can also correlate the manmade objects that it has detected and
identified with the objects in the database.
SferiAssist produces all visualizations by fusing the real-time 3D sensor information from the
SferiSense with information from the on-board database.
Optionally, SferiAssist can fuse information from the helicopter’s 2D camera with 3D visual
cues and present it to the pilot as a combined image. The image can be shown either on a
helmet-mounted display or on a head-down display. If there is a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) camera, SferiAssist can therefore provide a picture of the surroundings also in zero
light conditions.
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The reliable choice
An advanced situational awareness solution can help your helicopter pilots meet the challenges of flying in degraded visual environments (DVE) or at low altitudes. When choosing
such a solution, you can best ensure the safety of pilots and their mission success by
•
•
•
•
•
Choosing a solution that displays the information provided by the sensor in easily and
quickly understood visual format.
Making sure that the solution detects obstacles reliably
Preferring a standard, modular solution
Opting for compatible system that has a credible roadmap into the future
Choosing a trusted supplier with ability to deliver.
The Sferion® system from Airbus Defence and Space is the optimal solution to the problems
that helicopter pilots have when flying in DVE. A complete Sferion system can provide navigational aid, an awareness of the helicopter’s surroundings, and very special assistance for
flying or landing in DVE. In addition, the complete system will be able to record, transfer, and
analyse flights and missions.
You can choose a single Sferion component according to your operational needs, or you can
get the benefits of several or all of them, integrated into a single Sferion system.
Choose Sferion from Airbus Defence and Space and solve the problems that your helicopter
pilots face when flying in DVE such as brown-out, white-out or zero-light conditions.
Find out more about Sferion: www.cassidian.com/sferion
Be in touch: send your question to [email protected]
Helicopter pilots face a number of safety challenges because they have to fly at low
altitudes and also in degraded visual environments
(DVE), such as brown-out,
white-out, and zero-light conditions.
Contacts
Today’s technologies can
help solve their problem of
DVE. Where human eyesight
alone is not enough, powerful
software can process and
combine information from
sensors, databases and data
links and present it in visual
format.
Airbus Defence and Space
MetaPole
1, boulevard Jean Moulin
CS 40001
78996 Elancourt Cedex
France
Airbus Defence and Space
Landshuter Str.26
85716 Unterschleißheim
Germany
T: +49 (0) 89.3179-0
F: +49 (0) 3179-4640
T: +33 (0)1 61 38 50 00
[email protected]
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Cover photo: Copyright © Ned Dawson.
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