Technologies Capable of Detecting FOD
There is some debate regarding FOD detection systems as the costs can be high and the domain of responsibility is not clear. However, one airport claims that their FOD detection system may have paid for itself in a single incident where personnel were alerted to a steel cable on the runway, before a single aircraft was put at risk. The FAA has investigated FOD detection technologies, and has set standards for the following categories:
- Radar
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- example: QinetiQ and Trex Aviation Systems
- QinetiQ installations combine radar with cameras mounted on pylons alongside runways. Trex use mobile radars mounted on vehicles, which are driven on the runways, taxiways, aprons and parking ramps. Due to its mobility, the Trex system is the only FOD detection system reviewed by the FAA that covers 100% of the airports operating surface.
- Electro-Optical
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- Stratech
- Hybrid:
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- Xsight Systems Xsight's Surface Detection Units are mounted on the runway edge lights and combine a millimeter-wave radar sensor and an optic sensor with NIR illumination.
- RFID on metal
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- Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to track objects such as tools to prevent items from being left in airplanes, nuclear reactors, and other critical areas.
Read more about this topic: Foreign Object Damage
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