Foreign Object Debris (FOD) Detection

Foreign object debris (FOD) at airports includes any object found in an inappropriate location that -- as a result of being in that location -- can damage equipment or injure airplane or airport personnel. The resulting damage is estimated to cost the aerospace industry $4 billion a year. FOD includes a wide range of material, including loose hardware, catering supplies, building materials, rocks, pieces of luggage, and even wildlife. FOD is found at terminal gates, cargo aprons, taxiways, runways, and run-up pads. It causes damage through direct contact with airplanes, such as by cutting airplane tires or being ingested into engines, or as a result of being thrown by jet blast and damaging airplanes or injuring people.

Regulatory agencies define the responsibility of airports, serving scheduled airlines, in de tecting and removing FOD. Regulations defined by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for U.S. airlines differ from those defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for other countries.

FAA Part 139.305(a)(4) states, "except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, mud, dirt, sand, loose aggregate, debris, foreign objects, rubber deposits and other contaminants shall be removed promptly and as completely as practicable." FAA Advisory Circular 150/5200-30A, Airport Winter Safety and Operations, specifies cleanup requirements for sand applied during winter operations.

ICAO Annex 14 Recommendation, Pavements-paragraph 9.4.2 states, "The surface of pavements (runways, taxiways, aprons, etc.) should be kept clear of any loose stones or other objects that might cause damage to airplane structures or engines, or impair the operation of airplane systems." The regulatory agencies of many countries have adopted this statement by ICAO as a requirement.

There is a significant cost to airport authorities in detecting and removing FOD. Most detection methods are manual or require operators to initiate checking procedures. Many of the detection procedures involve visual scanning and can only be carried out when runways and taxiways are not in operation, resulting in greater downtime at the airport.


How TADAR can help
The TADAR camera can be configured to sweep across runways, taxiways and aprons, either when mounted on a fixed pedestal with a good view of the area to be swept or when mounted on the back of a vehicle as it is driven around the airport. The high spatial resolution of the camera enables much smaller objects to be detected than with currently-installed radar systems.

In this application TADAR may be configured with either passive, active or combined passiveactive sensors. In the passive mode it produces the highest resolution images while in the active mode (using an fmcw front-end) it produces a 3-dimensional image of the scene. In this application TADAR acts both as a FOD Scanner as well as the input for a Traffic Management or Collision Avoidance System.