Patent ID: 9568305
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: B64D,G01B,G06T,H04N

Claim:
1. A system for measuring a thickness of ice on a surface of an aircraft, the system comprising: a light source configured to project a collimated beam onto the surface to generate a luminous pattern by diffusion in the ice; an imaging device configured to acquire an image of the ice including the luminous pattern; a measuring unit configured to measure on the image a luminous intensity profile of the luminous pattern, wherein the luminous intensity profile comprises a curve representing intensity of the luminous pattern as a function of a distance from a point of penetration of the collimated beam into the ice, and wherein the light source is oriented with respect to the surface so that the luminous intensity profile has a summit at the point of penetration; and a calculation unit configured to estimate the thickness of ice present on the surface as a function of the luminous intensity profile, wherein the measuring unit is configured to measure a width of the summit of the intensity profile and the calculation unit is configured to estimate the thickness of ice as a function of the width of the summit of the intensity profile and from at least one predetermined table.