Real-time conflict detection for helicopter collision avoidance

Helicopter collision avoidance deals with two or more aircrafts when separation is violated and/or caused possible conflict. From the real time surveillance data, flight information of each aircraft will establish a trigonometric relationship for separation analysis. A range of possible intersecting angles (PIAs) can be found to assess their conflict situation under predetermined priority. This paper presents a separation analysis from this trigonometric relationship and proposes a simple algorithm to detect the possible intersection for the approaching aircraft. Separation minimum is also included to maintain safety airspace both in lateral and longitudinal approaching. Due to helicopter performance in low altitude, vertical separation minimum requirements are not forced within Instrument Meteorological Condition (IMC) or Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC) in the research. The proposed real time detection method can be applied to any appropriate surveillance with data link.