Airport Safety Technology R&D Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Detection Technology & NextGen Airport Research 2008 Eastern Region Airport Conference, Hershey, PA Jim Patterson Tuesday March 18, 2008

Introduction FAA’s Airport Safety Technology R&D SubTeam Part of the Airport Technology R&D Team located at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ Combined Workforce of 24 Federal and Contractor Personnel Offices reside at the FAA’s National Airport Pavement Test Facility

The FAA Technical Center 3

Airport Safety R&D Airport Technology R&D Branch (Team) Airport Pavement R&D Section (Subteam) Airport Safety Technology R&D Section (Subteam) Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Wildlife Surface Traction Visual Guidance Operation of NLA Airport Design

Discussion Today: FOD Detection Technology Update NextGen Airport Technology Research

Automated FOD Detection Why is the FAA Interested? -Concorde crash preliminary report “It has become clearer that this was a unique accident caused by a one-off chance of a piece of metal lying on the runway“.      

Automated FOD Detection FOD Detection Concept: Could avian based radar systems be used to detect FOD? Could FOD be automatically detected? Could airport operator be alerted quickly? Can we prevent another Concorde incident?

Automated FOD Detection FAA Goal Develop performance standards for Automated FOD Detection Systems. Publish Technical Note documenting research. Develop FAA Advisory Circular specifically for FOD Detection Systems. Enable civil airports opportunity to apply for Federal funding to procure systems.

Automated FOD Detection Available Technologies: QinetiQ – Tarsier Radar – Providence, RI (PVD) Millimeter Wave Radar Mounted on Rigid Towers Stratech – iFerret – Chicago O’Hare (ORD) High Resolution Camera X-Sight – FODetect – Boston Logan (BOS) High Resolution Camera and Millimeter Wave Radar Mounted on Airport Lighting Fixtures Trex Enterprises – FOD Finder – Chicago Midway (MDW) Millimeter Wave Radar and Infrared Cameras Mounted on roof of Airport Vehicle

Detection Capability Testing

Detection Capability Testing

Automated FOD Detection QinetiQ – Tarsier Radar Providence, RI

FOD Found at PVD!

Stratech

Stratech

Stratech

Stratech

Stratech

XSight

XSight

Trex FODFinder

Trex FODFinder

Trex FODFinder

Automated FOD Detection QinetiQ Tarsier Radar http://www.qinetiq.com Stratech iFerret http://www.stratechsystems.com XSight FODetect http://www.xsightsys.com Trex Enterprises FODFinder http://www.trexenterprises.com

Airport Safety R&D FAA Technical Center Airport Technology R&D Branch AAR-411/AJP-6311, Building 296 Atlantic City International Airport, NJ 08405 Jim.Patterson@faa.gov 609-485-4989 www.airporttech.tc.faa.gov