초록 ▼

Apparatus (10) for acquiring and tracking a missile (M), and guiding it to a target (T). Beacons (18, 19) are carried on the missile to provide an indication of its location in a field of view. One beacon (18) is a xenon beacon which emits energy in a short wave-length portion of the light spectrum.

Apparatus (10) for acquiring and tracking a missile (M), and guiding it to a target (T). Beacons (18, 19) are carried on the missile to provide an indication of its location in a field of view. One beacon (18) is a xenon beacon which emits energy in a short wave-length portion of the light spectrum. The other beacon (19) is a thermal source which emits infrared radiation in a longer wave-length portion of the spectrum. A sight unit (20) includes both a xenon beacon detector and a forward looking infrared receiver (FLIR). The FLIR provides two independent channels (A, B) of video. An electrical signal developed within the sight unit is separately processed on both of the channels. One channel is used to develop a video display for an operator for target acquisition and tracking. The other channel is used for missile tracking and clutter and countermeasure (CM) rejection. A tracking unit (40) processes the signal to determine missile location relative to the target; and, if corrections to the missile freight path are necessary, a missile control unit (56) transmits them to the missile over wires (W). If two or more objects (M, D1, D2) are located in the field of view, a module (88) of the tracking unit undertakes a “segmentation”process to differentiate and characterize the objects to determine which object is the missile and which is not.

대표청구항 ▼

Apparatus for acquiring, tracking and guiding an object to a target comprising: beacon means carried on the object for providing an indication of its location at any time during its movement toward the target; acquisition means responsive to the beacon means for acquiring and tracking the object, th

Apparatus for acquiring, tracking and guiding an object to a target comprising: beacon means carried on the object for providing an indication of its location at any time during its movement toward the target; acquisition means responsive to the beacon means for acquiring and tracking the object, the acquisition means including means for scanning a field of view which includes an image of the object as produced by the beacon means, and means for converting the image from each scan into two separate electrical signals one of which is supplied as an output non a first signal channel and the other of which is supplied as an output on a second and separate signal channel; first processing means for processing the electrical signal on the first signal channel to generate a display signal for producing a visual display of the field of view including the target and the object, and display means to which the display signal is supplied for producing the visual display; second processing means for separately processing the electrical signal on the second signal channel to determine the location of the object relative to the target; and, control means responsive to the location for generating and transmitting a control signal to the object to guide it to the target.