Trw Limited

Joseph W Austin

Michael K Barnoski

Shi-Kay Yao

Charles K Asawa

Stewart D Personick

Peter Moshchansky Livingston

John Nella

Allan R Jackson

A hyperspectral detection and seeking system for use in air-to-air, air-to-ground and ground-to-air missiles. The hyperspectral detection and seeking system includes a hyperspectral imaging system and a tracking system. Hyperspectral signatures for targets of interest may be either observed directly prior to launch or preloaded into the detection and seeking system. A tracking system provides for tracking of a target matching the preloaded or hyperspectral signature observed prior to launch. The hyperspectral detection and seeking system thus provides relatively higher precision for detecting and seeking targets with hyperspectral signatures. Since such hyperspectral signatures are formed from literally hundreds of spectra, the system is virtually immune to countermeasure since any countermeasures would effectively have to match its own hyperspectral signature over a relatively wide spectral range.

Hyperspectral air-to-air missile seeker

A system for remote measurement of structural forces includes a plurality of microbend transducers mounted along the length of the structure for microbending an optical fiber in response to structural forces, such as stress acting upon an oil or gas pipeline or the like. An optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) has a light source for launching a pulsed optical signal for passage through the fiber and a photodetector for sensing as a function of time the intensity of backscattered light reflected back through the fiber, wherein this sensed time function is correlated directly with discrete longitudinal positions along the length of the fiber and the structure. When one or more of the microbend transducers is activated to induce a microbend in the fiber in response to localized forces acting upon the structure, a portion of the backscattered light is lost at the microbend. This attenuation in backscattered light intensity is sensed quantitatively and positionally identified by the photodetector. Specific preferred constructions for microbend transducers and system arrangements particularly adapted for detecting structural strain in an oil or gas pipeline are disclosed.

Microbending of optical fibers for remote force measurement

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Torrance, CA, United States of America

Joseph W Austin