NICOP - Airplane-borne high performance coherent Doppler Lidar to detect wake turbulence
Abstract
Airplane-borne high performance coherent Doppler Lidar to detect wake turbulence:. Technical descriptionsThis project, proposed by a Kyoto University-based technology venture, aims to develop a small, lightweight and durable Coherent Dopplar Lidar (CDL) system that can ultimately be mounted on an aircraft for the real-time detection of wake turbulence in the path. The objective will be accomplished in four steps: (i) iteratively modeling, testing and selecting materials suitable for the desired system through in-silico calculations and phsycal testing of mock-up models; (ii) converging on one design; (iii) building a test model and testing in a wind tunnel; and (iv) building a prototype and testing on actual aircrafts. This project takes advantage of the PIs~ existing state-of-art (and better-and-cheaper-than-the-competitors) ground-based CDL technology and their patented CDL data handling software. While their existing ground-based CDL technology is ready for field tests already (and its field testing is already being planned for Japanese FY2016), their aircraft-mounted CDL is still at its early conceptual design stage. This NICOP would allow the PIs to conduct the in-silico calculations necessary to select the appropriate materials, and design and build mock-ups, scale models and test models. b. Naval relevanceThe Aircraft-mounted CDL would substantially increase the safety and efficiency of both commercial and military operations. In commercial airfields, the need to avoid the wake turbulence of the previous aircraft determines the minimum takeoff interval. The takeoff interval is set between 2 to 8 minutes depending on the size of the aircraft taking off and that of the preceding aircraft. However, this interval is primarily an empirical practice based on the aviation industry experience, and not based on the wake turbulence measurements. This is because there is no technology available to measure wake turbulence under individual aircrafts. The Aircraft-mounted CDL and the real-time monitoring of wake turbulence it enables would allow the aircraft to take off with the data-driven assurance of turbulence-free path. This will not only assure safety, but also enable the takeoff interval to be shortened when wake turbulence dissipates sooner than the current empirical ~guess~ for the safe takeoff interval. In addition to substantially increasing the safety and efficiency of the conventional aircraft operations, the vehicle-mounted CDL will have applications in the operation of a swarm of autonomous aircrafts. c. CoordinationNavy IPO (Mr. Bob Cuff) and ONRG (Dr. Chris Bassler) are currently working on identifying a host for the PIs~ ground-based CDL to be tested under the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program. d. Desired outcomeDepending on the maturity at the end of the three-year project, ONRG and Navy IPO will push the aircraft-mounted CDL technology for CWP (if the Japanese Government is interested in taking part), JCDT, or FCT.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 23, 2016
- Source ID
- N629091612200
Entities
People
- Kuniaki Higashi
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy