Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T02:39:11.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Comparison of Two Systems for Avoiding Collision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

E. S. Calvert
E. S. Calvert
Affiliation:
(Royal Aircraft Establishment)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the last number of the Journal (14, 243) Hollingdale showed mathematically that anticollision manoeuvres for the case of two craft moving in a plane can be formulated on a rigorous logical basis; and that a simple set of manoeuvres could be devised to meet all the geometrical requirements for anti-collision. The convention adopted was that each craft should manoeuvre so that if the other craft stood-on, the sight-line (the line joining the two craft) would always rotate in an anti-clockwise direction. The analysis showed that, mathematically, this was the complete and only answer to the basic problem.

The author of the present paper compares systems, such as that represented by the Collision Regulations and the Rules of the Air, based on onus to avoid, with a system based on a convention as to the direction of rotation of the sight-line. The first type of system, he holds, is defective for visual sightings and almost useless for radar sightings. The system put forward in the paper can be applied to both visual and radar sightings whether unilateral or bilateral by orientating a simple diagram with own course. A means of inter-communication is desirable but even without it such a system can, the author believes, safely be employed in the greater proportion of encounters.

The collision problem as a whole is beset by operational factors which are entirely distinct from the geometry of the situation, and for that reason no purely mathematical approach can, in isolation, be entirely valid. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that studies such as the present one, based on a proper understanding of the geometry, can contribute greatly to the solution of this most pressing problem of navigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 1961 , pp. 379 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Calvert, E. S. (1960). Manoeuvres to ensure the avoidance of collision. This Journal, 13, 127.Google Scholar
2Howell, W. D. and Fisher, R. B. (1957). Visual avoidance of mid-air collisions. S.A.E. Nat. Aero. Meeting, New York.Google Scholar
3Wylie, F. J. (1960). The Calvert methods of manoeuvring to avoid collision at sea and of radar display. This Journal, 13, 455.Google Scholar
4Calvert, E. S. (1961). This Journal, 14, 366.Google Scholar
5Gauw, J. A. (1955). Radar and collision at sea. This Journal, 8, 178.Google Scholar
6Quilter, E. S. (1957). The unsolved collision problem. Western Regional Meeting of the U.S. Inst. of Navig.Google Scholar
7Annual Report (1960). Liverpool Underwriters' Assn., pp. 14 and 15.Google Scholar
8Morrel, J. S. (1961). The physics of collision at sea. This Journal, 14, 163.Google Scholar
9Hollingdale, S. H. (1961). The mathematics of collision avoidance in two dimensions. This Journal, 14, 243.Google Scholar
10Calvert, E. S. (1958). The use of aircrew-interpreted devices for preventing collision in the air. This Journal, 11, 327.Google Scholar