Thomas Dipl.-Ing. Pistner

Bio: Thomas Dipl.-Ing. Pistner is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Lidar & Interface (computing). The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 7 publications receiving 125 citations.

Airborne Lidar for Automatic Feedforward Control of Turbulent In-Flight Phenomena

Abstract: Design, development, installation, and flight test of a novel airborne forward-looking lidar sensor are presented, aiming at accurately and remotely measuring the airspeed in front of the aircraft for automatic control of turbulence in-flight phenomena. The development is driven by the stringent requirements of the capability of measuring airspeed at cruise altitude, in clear air, and at all weather environments with the required precision. The sensor was installed in an A340-300 testbed for flight testing, inside a dedicated fairing in a forward-looking configuration. The flight-test measurements proved that the direct-detection Rayleigh/Mie lidar is capable of detecting the wind speed under flight-test conditions up to 39,000 ft in clear air, rain, dense clouds, and ice rain. A measurement range of 50 m is achieved for the ultraviolet lidar at a 60 Hz update rate and at a standard deviation of line-of-sight speed as low as 1.0―1.5 m/s. Those parameters, as required for forward-looking automatic control sensors, are a unique basis for the usage of such a remote sensor for automatic turbulence control.

Lidar method for measuring speeds and lidar device with time-controlled detection

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the lidar measurement of speeds, a laser beam (15) being directed onto the medium (16) to be measured and the radiation (18) reflected by the medium (16) being measured by means of a detector (35). In order to optimize the measurement, a spatial measurement area (r1, r2) is adjusted by activating and/or deactivating the detector (35) by means of at least one predetermined or controlled duration (T1, T2) of less than approximately 500μs after emission of a laser pulse (40) onto the medium (16) to be measured. The invention further relates to a (direct detection Doppler) lidar device for carrying out said method.

Medical and safety monitoring system over an in-cabin optical wireless network

Abstract: An integrated health and safety monitoring system for aircraft environments using commercially available medical sensor modules and custom made safety sensors in conjunction with an appropriate database supervised through a human–machine interface is implemented. The application described aims at preventing critical health- or safety-related situations during the flight. The health monitoring part of the system is capable of collecting all relevant data, essential in analysing a passenger's health profile. These data, comprising of body temperature, blood pressure, pulse oximetry and electrocardiogram, are throughput and transmitted over a wireless optical intra-cabin link to a server. Furthermore, and in order to reduce the cabin crew workload, along with the health data from a specific passenger group, seat-embedded safety sensors provide information for all passengers' flight safety parameters (such as table upright, seat-belt closed, etc.). The data gathered by the system in a central server can, in i...

A sensor monitoring system for telemedicine, safety and security applications

Abstract: A sensor system capable of medical, safety and security monitoring in avionic and other environments (e.g. homes) is examined. For application inside an aircraft cabin, the system relies on an optical cellular network that connects each seat to a server and uses a set of database applications to process data related to passengers’ health, safety and security status. Health monitoring typically encompasses electrocardiogram, pulse oximetry and blood pressure, body temperature and respiration rate while safety and security monitoring is related to the standard flight attendance duties, such as cabin preparation for take-off, landing, flight in regions of turbulence, etc. In contrast to previous related works, this article focuses on the system’s modules (medical and safety sensors and associated hardware), the database applications used for the overall control of the monitoring function and the potential use of the system for security applications. Further tests involving medical, safety and securit...

Interconnection Framework for mHealth and Remote Monitoring Based on the Internet of Things

Abstract: Communication and information access defines the basis to reach a personalized health end-to-end framework. Personalized health capability is limited to the available data from the patient. The data is usually dynamic and incomplete. Therefore, it presents a critical issue for mining, analysis and trending. For that reason, this work presents an interconnection framework for mobile Health (mHealth) based on the Internet of Things. It makes continuous and remote vital sign monitoring feasible and introduces technological innovations for empowering health monitors and patient devices with Internet capabilities. It also allows patient monitoring and supervision by remote centers, and personal platforms such as tablets. In terms of hardware it offers a gateway and a personal clinical device used for the wireless transmission of continuous vital signs through 6LoWPAN, and patient identification through RFID. In terms of software, this interconnection framework presents a novel protocol, called YOAPY, for an efficient, secure, and scalable integration of the sensors deployed in the patient's personal environment. This paper presents the architecture and evaluates its capability to provide continuous monitoring, ubiquitous connectivity, extended device integration, reliability, and security and privacy support. The proposed interconnection framework and the proposed protocol for the sensors have been exhaustively evaluated in the framework of the AIRE project, which is focused on patients with breathing problem. This evaluates for the proposed protocol the data aggregation mechanism level, Round-Trip delay Time, impact of the distance, and the impact of the security. It has been concluded that secure continuous monitoring is feasible with the use of the proposed {YOAPY}} aggregation mechanisms and the capabilities from the proposed interconnection framework.

Atmospheric measurement system

Abstract: A magnitude and direction, or a measure responsive thereto, of a velocity (V) of a first portion (17) of an atmosphere (20) are determined from at least first and second portions of scattered light (30) generated along a common beam of light (28) within the first portion (17) of the atmosphere (20) and received along linearly independent directions at locations that are relatively remote with respect to one another, at least one of which is relatively remote from a source (11) of the beam of light (28).

The Airborne Demonstrator for the Direct-Detection Doppler Wind Lidar ALADIN on ADM-Aeolus. Part I: Instrument Design and Comparison to Satellite Instrument

Abstract: The global observation of profiles of the atmospheric wind speed is the highest-priority unmet need for global numerical weather prediction. Satellite Doppler lidar is the most promising candidate to meet the requirements on global wind profile observations with high vertical resolution, precision, and accuracy. The European Space Agency (ESA) decided to implement a Doppler wind lidar mission called the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission Aeolus (ADM-Aeolus) to demonstrate the potential of the Doppler lidar technology and the expected impact on numerical weather forecasting. An airborne prototype of the instrument on ADM-Aeolus was developed to validate the instrument concept and retrieval algorithms with realistic atmospheric observations before the satellite launch. It is the first airborne direct-detection Doppler lidar for atmospheric observations, and it is operating at an ultraviolet wavelength of 355 nm. The optical design is described in detail, including the single-frequency pulsed laser and th...

Adaptive Feedforward Control for Gust Load Alleviation

Abstract: In this paper, an adaptive feedforward control framework is proposed for the suppression of aircraft structural vibrations induced by gust perturbations to increase the resilience of the !ight control law in the presence of the aeroelastic/aeroservoelastic interactions. Currently, aircraft with nonadaptive control laws usually include roll-off or notch "lters to avoid aeroelastic/aeroservoelastic interactions. However, if changes in the aircraft con"guration aresigni"cant,the frequencies of the!exible modesof the aircraft may beshifted, andthe notch"lterscould become totally ineffective. With the proposed approach, the !exible modes can be consistently estimated in real time via a proven system-identi"cation algorithm. The identi"ed !exible modes information is used in the proposed adaptive feedforwardcontrolalgorithmtoadjusttheparametrizationofthebasisfunctionsinafeedforwardcontroller.Along with the recursive least-squares estimate, the feedforward controller is adjusted, and the structural vibration of the aircraft induced by the gust perturbation can be largely suppressed. An F/A-18 active aeroelastic wing aeroelastic model with gust perturbation based on the linear aeroelastic solver formulation is developed as a test bed to demonstrate the proposed adaptive feedforward control algorithm.