Type of Document Master's Thesis Author McKeon, Sean Patrick Author's Email Address spmckeon@gmail.com URN etd-07092009-204455 Title A GPU Stream Computing Approach to Terrain Database Integrity Monitoring Degree Master of Science Department Computer Science Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Dr. Michael Weeks Committee Chair Dr. Scott Owen Committee Member Dr. Ying Zhu Committee Member Keywords
- Brook for GPUs
- terrain database
- synthetic vision
- graphics processing unit
- stream computing
- integrity monitor
- ray casting
- digital elevation model
Date of Defense 2009-06-19 Availability unrestricted Abstract Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) provide an aircraft pilot with a virtual 3-D image ofsurrounding terrain which is generated from a digital elevation model stored in an onboard
database. SVS improves the pilot's situational awareness at night and in inclement weather,
thus reducing the chance of accidents such as controlled flight into terrain. A terrain database
integrity monitor is needed to verify the accuracy of the displayed image due to potential
database and navigational system errors. Previous research has used existing aircraft sensors
to compare the real terrain position with the predicted position. We propose an improvement
to one of these models by leveraging the stream computing capabilities of commercial
graphics hardware. "Brook for GPUs," a system for implementing stream computing applications
on programmable graphics processors, is used to execute a streaming ray-casting
algorithm that correctly simulates the beam characteristics of a radar altimeter during all
phases of flight.
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