Aircraft detection and tracking using intelligent cameras

Systems that provide ground movement management at airports, maintaining ground safety and increasing air traffic capacity, are called A-SMGCS (advanced surface movement guidance and control systems). However, common A-SMGCS systems, based on surface movement radars (SMR), are affected by limitations in their coverage due to reflections or shadows from objects on the airport surface. Hence, the use of a complementary system is necessary to act as a "gap-filler", i.e. to provide accurate ground movement information for these problematic areas. This paper aims to present a novel cost-effective video-based system to act as a "gap-filler" for existing A-SMGCS systems. The proposed system consists of a network of intelligent digital cameras, which are able to detect the presence of an aircraft or vehicle in specific locations within their fields of view, and then provide this information to a multiple hypothesis tracking (MHT) algorithm to extract target tracks.