Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a Collision/Obstacle/Brown-Out with Sense and Avoidance (COBOSA) system. It is based on a new system design that utilizes POC-developed, mature components from four different DoD-sponsored radar development programs. COBOSA operates in landing and sense-and-avoid modes, and it provides a full 360-degree coverage with no moving parts. It not only prevents obstacle tail-strikes but also provides situational awareness to the pilot during navigation in normal or degraded visual environments when camera systems fail. It detects passive objects such as trees, wires, and buildings and can also detect both passive obstacles and noncooperative threats such as intruder aircraft. COBOSA uses military-acceptable interfaces, such as MIL-STD-1553 or Ethernet, and for unmanned aircraft, it can integrate with the collision avoidance software for automated maneuvering. Thus, COBOSA safeguards forward missions and provides early warning of imminent obstacles, resulting in improved mission effectiveness and reduced operator workload, and preventing loss of unmanned aerial systems (UASs). In Phase I, POC will design COBOSA and develop limited-scale benchtop hardware to show component feasibility. In Phase II, POC will develop a field-ready, TRL-5/-6, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-mounted COBOSA with collision avoidance capability that can be demonstrated to the Navy for further transition.
Benefit: The main application of COBOSA will be adding high-accuracy sense and avoid on UASs. It can also be used in ground operations as a low-size, weight, and power (SWaP) unattended ground sensor for detecting moving threats. The radar can be used for sense and avoid (SAA) applications for military aircraft, for perimeter surveillance (especially in degraded visual conditions), and for its original application of surveillance while mounted on a UAS. Moreover, the system can be used to track UAVs during formation flying. COBOSA not only assists with preventing risky tail-strikes during low-level flight maneuvers, takeoffs, and landings in confined landing zones, but it also provides mission safety and secure navigation specifically during formation flying. Additional applications of COBOSA are in collision avoidance of commercial airlines, vehicular and railway transports, and other transit applications involving visually limited situations.
Keywords: Brown-out, Brown-out, radio frequency (RF) lens, sense and avoid (SAA), ultrawide bandwidth, landing zone detection, Millimeter Wave Radar, collision avoidance, clutter rejection/analysis
