Design criteria for helicopter night pilotage sensors

Richard H. Vollmerhausen

doi:10.1117/12.2300254

29 January 1992 Design criteria for helicopter night pilotage sensors

Richard H. Vollmerhausen

Proceedings Volume 2075, Passive Sensors; 20750Q (1992) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2300254
Event: Infrared Information Symposia, 1991, Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Abstract

The Army requirement to fly helicopters at low level at night led to the development and fielding of night vision pilotage sensors. These sensors have included image intensifiers (I2) operating in the near infrared as well as 8 to 12 micron thermal imagers. The design of current pilotage sensors was driven by available technology. There were no clear data for optimum pilotage sensor design, to enable the designer to trade off sensor field of view (FOV) and resolution or to predict the performance increase which could be obtained by increasing sensitivity. The current Center for Night Vision and Electro-Optics (CCNVEO) effort is an attempt to establish design criteria for night pilotage sensors. It includes flight experiments to find sensor characteristics which optimize flight tasks as well as assessments of the performance of fielded systems. We conclude that terrain flight can be accomplished with reasonable pilot workload using a sensor with 40 degree FOV and 0.6 cycles per milli- radian (cy/mrad) resolution. Larger FOV or better resolution will lesson workload and improve confidence; however, the ability to resolve scene detail of 0.6 cy/mrad is essential and should not be traded for increased FOV. Further, a pilotage system which provides both thermal and I imagery will significantly enhance system capability to support a variety of flight tasks under a wide range of environments. We also conclude that solid state cameras with detector dwell time equal to the standard video field rate are not suitable for use in pilotage systems. The long dwell time leads to image blur due to the head and scene motion associated with many pilotage tasks.

Citation Download Citation

Richard H. Vollmerhausen "Design criteria for helicopter night pilotage sensors", Proc. SPIE 2075, Passive Sensors, 20750Q (29 January 1992); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2300254

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