Airport Surveillance System

Nowadays, the threat of collisions caused by foreign object and debris is commonly recognized to impact airport safety since the Concorde accident. This chapter describes the development of the FOD detection system using radio over fiber in order to widen the coverage of millimeter wave radars. We introduced the development of a FOD detection system that uses a hybrid sensor millimeter-wave radar network and a high-sensitivity camera. In order to extend the coverage of millimeter-wave radar, the radio over fiber system is installed in the radar network. The optical two-tone RoF system provides the doubled RF frequency and stable reception of the optical signal in the field. The results of a field test using the prototype conducted at Narita International Airport showed that it was able to detect a piece of metal determined by AC of FAA and achieve the ability to take photographs clearly even at night. In the laboratory tests, we also develop a multistatic radar system to improve the performance of the probability of the detection and mapping without any scanning of the antennas. The prototype system makes the radar image by switching the transmission, and plural mono/bistatic measurements increase the precision of the positioning of the FODs.