Technology for Chopper Brownouts

CAE and Neptec Design Group have successfully demonstrated Neptec’s Obscurant Penetrating Autosynchronous LIDAR (OPAL) sensor as integrated into CAE’s Augmented Visionics System (AVS). CAE’s AVS solution is being developed to enable helicopter pilots to operate safely in the most extreme conditions, including landing in brownouts when dust recirculation caused by rotor downwash obscures the pilot’s view during critical maneuvering operations at very low altitudes. During recent testing at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, Neptec’s OPAL was used to successfully penetrate dust clouds generated by a UH-1 helicopter.  More importantly, OPAL could “see through” brownout conditions opaque to the human eye to easily differentiate between rocks, bushes, sloping terrain, utility poles, ground vehicles, and wires at distances greater than 200 meters.  The high-resolution detail returned by OPAL provides situational awareness critical to helicopter pilots when attempting to land in near-zero visibility conditions.