2005 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe

The AWIATOR airborne LIDAR turbulence sensor

Nikolaus P. Schmitt, Wolfgang Rehm, Paul Zeller, Thomas Pistner, Guenther Reithmeier, Stephan Stilkerich,Hermann Diehl, Klauis Schertler, Helmut Zinner

EADS Corporate Research Centre, 81663 AMuenchen, Germany

Within the European Comission's 6th framework program "AWIATOR", an airborne turbulence sensor system wasdeveloped using a short-pulse, UV direct-detection LIDAR, which will be presented here.

The system is designed to feed back turbulence data into the aircraft flight control system in order to to directlycounteract the turbulence influence on the aircraft.

Using a direct-detection UV system, the LIDAR utilizes Mie- as well as Rayleigh scattering in order to be fullyoperable at all flight levels and geographical regions, even with very low aerosol contents.

The measurement range of 50-150m ahead of the aircraft and a measuring volume depth of only several meters allowsdirect counteraction by deflection of appropriate control surfaces. Therefore this is the first LIDAR system suitablefor a closed-loop operation.

The system incorporates all necessary technologies at up-to-date level developed within this project, as miniaturizeddiode-pumped single-frequency UV all-solid-state lasers (pulsed, 300 mW and 3W average power), UV multiplexersand optics, UV cameras and interferometers, FPGA-based real-time electronics, new algorithms for real-time imageprocessing in order to process the Fabry-Perot fringe-images - all at flight-worthy integration level and certified forflight tests, which will be presented in detail.

First flight tests were performed in 2004 using the DLR ATTAS test aircraft. The results of these tests are also reportedhere, together with a detailed discussion of the LIDAR system. In these flight tests the principal (most important?)physical parameters were online recorded. It has been proven that they can be measured under several weatherconditions, flight levels and flightsituations. A direct-feed-back of these data will be investigated in the next flight tests.

This LIDAR system demonstrates an important first step to forward-looking optical sensors for use in direct-feed-backaircraft systems, in analogy to sensor systems used in modem automobile systems like ABS and ESP.

0-7803-8974-3/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 448