Date of Award

Summer 2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Zia-ur Rahman

Committee Member

Vijayan Asari

Committee Member

Jiang Li

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 R355 2008

Abstract

Runway incursion is a persistent problem that has resulted in some of the most devastating accidents in aviation history. With ever increasing air traffic and more passengers, runway safety is of utmost priority to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other agencies concerned with aviation. As the issue of aviation safety becomes increasingly important, developing a consistent application that detects runway incursions in various visibility conditions is crucial for the aviation industry. This thesis presents a novel method for detecting runway hazards in poor visibility conditions using image processing techniques. The first step is to obtain images of a runway on a clear day and compute the smoothness coefficients. Then edge detection is performed using the SUSAN edge detection algorithm. Finally, database of the smoothness coefficients and edge detected images is developed. For foggy images we compute the smoothness coefficients. Typically, foggy images have low contrast. Hence, before we perform edge detection, we enhance the image using Multi-Scale Retinex (MSR). The MSR provides the improvement in contrast and color constancy that is needed to enhance foggy images, by performing non-linear spatial/spectral transforms. After enhancement, the next step is to run the same edge detection algorithm with appropriate thresholds. Finally, we determine a hazard by comparing the edge detected images of images taken under dear and foggy conditions.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/h3n1-rf30

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