Raytheon Company

United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Barry N Levitt

Thomas H Crocker

Richard R LaTorre

Richard A Beckerleg

Everett E Chapman

Gordon C MacKenzie

Daniel O Eyring

Paul J Suprenant

An infrared signal processor is provided wherein infrared energy from objects on an area of the ground is directed towards a plurality of detectors disposed in a missile. The plurality of detectors scan the area of the ground and electrical signals produced by the detectors in response to the sensed infrared energy are processed to detect the presence of a ground target, typically a tank. Potential targets are detected, that is, are distinguished from ground clutter, by determining whether electrical pulses produced by the detectors in response to the sensed infrared energy have a proper pulse duration which is consistent with the width of a tank target. In particular, the electrical pulses are passed through a bandpass filter to filter signals produced by both ground clutter infrared energy and noise.

Infrared detection system

A gyroscopically stabilized optical seeker for use in a cannon-launched projectile is shown to include a gimbal arrangement wherein a two-axis rate gyroscope and associated torque motors are utilized to attain the requisite stabilization however such seeker is oriented with respect to such projectile, the two-axis rate gyroscope being arranged so that the complete optical system, including the detector unit, may be mounted on the inner gimbal.

Two-axis gimbal arrangement

A 'free-gyro' configuration of an optical seeker is shown to consist of a focusing and reticle arrangement rotatable about a point on an axis and an optical detector array translatable along a path parallel to such axis to maintain the center of such detector array on the image plane of the focusing and reticle means.

Free-gyro optical seeker

A system for digitizing and interfacing analog data from a plurality of amplitude modulated periodic signals with a computer in which an alternating reference signal is identified and sampled input data to be digitized is synchronized at the same time reference point of the waveform of the reference signal. Pulses from a real time clock are counted and synchronized with the reference signal and this synchronized signal is delayed and fed to a timing circuit which starts the multiplexing of the input signals and also activates an address counter to initialize the address locations in the computer. The analog data from the multiplexer is converted to digital values by an analog-to-digital converter and fed to the computer at the given address.

System for digitizing and interfacing analog data for a digital computer

An electronic coordinate transformation network using multiplier circuits for mechanizing and solving the equations relating the vectors of one coordinate system to those of another coordinate system.

Electronic coordinate transformation using multiplier circuits

An analog-to-pulse integrating converter uses dual slope integration to achieve DC voltage to pulse rate conversion. An input signal is integrated, the integrator output is level detected and the integrator reset, at the same time there is issued an output pulse. The output pulse rate is proportional to the level of the DC input signal.

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Framingham, MA, United States of America

Barry N Levitt