Research on conflict detection model for taxi‐in process on the apron based on aircraft wingtip keypoint detection

• Published in: IET intelligent transport systems 2023-05, Vol.17 (5), p.878-896
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tianxiong, Zhu, Xinping, Li, Jiajun, Chen, Honghao, Li, Zhihan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: apron; computer vision; conflict detection; wingtip keypoint detection
• ISSN: 1751-956X; 1751-9578
• DOI: 10.1049/itr2.12314

Apron safety is critical to aviation operations and aprons are prone to wingtip scraping accidents. However, few studies have been conducted on wingtip conflicts. In this paper, a class of aircraft conflict detection models based on wingtip keypoint detection is devised to solve the problem of wingtip scraping that may occur during the aircraft taxi‐in process on the apron. Firstly, a concise camera calibration technique is designed for the conversion between the pixel coordinate and the airport actual coordinate, which allows for the acquisition of high accuracy activity posture within the apron. Secondly, the static and dynamic safety protection zone delineation methods for wingtip conflict detection are given, taking the apron standard operating procedures and aircraft kinematic model into consideration. Then, the corresponding conflict detection models and algorithms are designed for the possible scraping between the vehicle and aircraft wingtips and between the aircraft and aircraft wingtips during the aircraft taxi‐in process on the apron. Finally, HRNet is selected to detect the keypoint of the wingtip by comparison, and the corresponding models and algorithm validation are carried out based on the apron physical sandbox. The verification results indicate that the models have strong accuracy and real‐time performance.