Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Thermo King Corporation

Craig D Walrath

Dale R Logan

Steven T Nyman

James V Arnts

Emil L Svensson

Kristie L Drude

A motion measurement system having three angle rate sensors and three accelerometers mounted on a platform fixed relative to and movable with a rotary antenna. An azimuth bearing angle measurement, which is geographically corrected by external signals is generated to locate detected targets. An antenna scan rate measurement is generated to regulate antenna rotational speed. An along-beam velocity measurement is generated for use by the radar's ground clutter tracker to initialize its velocity set point.

Motion measurement system and method for airborne platform

An improved method and system for providing accurate attitude measurements at a location in an vehicle remote from its inertial navigation system is disclosed. A relatively low cost, lightweight attitude reference sensor is mounted in the location where accurate attitude measurements are desired. The INS and the attitude reference sensor each include gyros and accelerometers for determining attitude about and translations along pitch, yaw and roll axes. A microprocessor periodically estimates steady-state vehicle flexure between the INS and the attitude reference sensor. Gyro measurements from the attitude reference unit are directly integrated to determine the attitude of the attitude reference sensor. This output is slaved over the long term to the sum of the INS attitude and the flexure estimate to compensate continuously for drift and other errors associated with the outputs of the low cost attitude reference sensor. Long-term accuracy is assured by this slaving while short-term accuracy is assured by direct gyro integration.

System and method for providing accurate attitude measurements at remote

An improved heliostat device for an electrooptical system in which a mirror is gimbaled in two axes for line-of-sight direction and stabilization. A half angle drive system is connected to the mirror for controlling azimuth rotation of the mirror relative to the stable body from which the mirror is mounted. The half angle drive system comprises a N-2N-speed synchro transmitter-receiver pair, with the N-speed synchro control transmitter mounted on the stable body axis, and the 2N-speed control receiver mounted on the mirror axis. This synchro transmitter-receiver pair is operable with a null error signal controlling mirror drive such that the angular rotation of the mirror is one-half that of the angular rotation of the stable body.

Half angle mechanism for a heliostat

A system is detailed for adaptively compensating for gimbal bearing friction in a gimbal mounted electro-optical system. The system is based on real-time compensation of a predictive value for gimbal bearing friction based on input transducer data to produce a friction compensation output, which is applied to the gimbal drive producing a torque which is equal and opposed to the bearing friction torque to minimize stabilization errors. The system adapts to match friction behavior in both amplitude and transient response (i.e. bandwidth) characteristics.

Electro-optical tracking system with adaptive bearing friction

An image motion compensator which electronically compensates for image distortion in an electro-optical system is disclosed. The electro-optical system comprises a TV camera having an image intensifier portion which includes a plurality of deflection coils disposed therein for deflecting the electron image of the TV camera as a function of the current passing therethrough; and at least one optical element for guiding the line-of-sight of the TV camera to project predetermined target images on the receiving area thereof. More specifically, accelerometers are used to sense movement of a predetermined optical element of the electro-optical system. An electronic processing unit separates from the accelerometer measurements substantially that movement of the predetermined optical element which may be causing distortion to the projected target images and governs the current passing through the plurality of deflection coils based on the separated undesirable movement measurement to electronically compensate for this image distortion in the TV camera. In addition, the image motion compensator further alters the deflection coil current as a function of variations in the high-voltage potential which is applied across the image intensifier portion of the TV camera.

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Catonsville, MD, United States of America

Craig D Walrath