US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

William Charles Ruff

Barry Lee Stann

Brian C Redman

Paul H Shen

William Beynon Lawler

Zoltan G Sztankay

Fouad Kiamilev

Mark Michael Giza

Keith M Aliberti

Julius Marcus

Joshua T Dillon

Jorge Andres Garcia

David R Anderson

A bullet tracking system comprising a sensor sub-system that generates bullet tracking data by tracking a position and range of a bullet discharged from a remote-controlled weapon and traveling to an intended target; a processor that processes the bullet tracking data to determine aim adjustments of the weapon for subsequent firing of bullets to compensate for tracked bullet ballistics to improve an accuracy of the bullets for reaching the intended target; and a control sub-system to make the aim adjustments of the weapon.

Bullet tracker for aiming remote controlled weapon systems

A system comprising a laser for transmitting a beam of light towards a target area; a controller for controlling the output of the laser; a receiver for collecting reflected pulses of light reflected from the target area, the receiver comprising a plurality of receive elements, each of the receive elements having a different field of view; a combiner for combining the outputs of the receive elements into one composite signal of the target area; an interface circuitry for converting the composite signal into an image; display unit displaying output from interface circuitry.

System for laser detection with enhanced field of view

Ladar systems and methods are provided. One embodiment is a ladar system comprising: a chirp generator for generating a chirped waveform; a laser for transmitting a light signal toward a target, the light signal being modulated by the chirped waveform; and a photon-counting sensor for receiving a temporally-modulated photon stream corresponding to the modulated light signal being reflected from the target and toward the ladar system, the photon-counting sensor gated relative to the chirped waveform.

Photon counting, chirped AM LADAR system and related methods

Ladar systems are provided. An exemplary ladar system includes a waveform generator for generating an arbitrary waveform, a laser for transmitting a modulated light signal toward a target, and a Doppler tracking loop for tracking the Doppler frequency shift between the transmitted light signal and a received reflected light signal.

Systems for doppler tracking using photonic mixing detectors

An imaging method and apparatus using an unmodulated pulsed laser with a chirp modulated receiver is provided for producing 3D plus intensity imagery of targets in heavily cluttered locations The apparatus includes a laser for emitting a laser beam and synchronizing a receiver to receive a reflected laser signal and transform the reflected laser signal into a displayable image that includes intensity information.

Chirped amplitude modulation ladar

A system and method for performing high-resolution imagery of a target are provided. One embodiment is a method of performing high-resolution imagery of a target comprising: generating a chirped waveform that modulates a light signal transmitted toward a target for performing active LADAR of the target; generating a low-frequency local oscillator waveform for performing active imaging; and simultaneously performing passive imaging and active LADAR.

Systems and methods for performing active LADAR and passive high resolution imagery

Methods and apparatus for generating a code-multiplexed readout value of photocurrents for a photo-detector array of cells are disclosed. Readout values are determined using a multiplexer and current amplifier for each cell and a current-to-voltage converter for each row of cells. The multiplexer multiplexes a photocurrent in an electrical domain for a respective cell using a code and generates electric currents responsive to the photocurrent. The current amplifier amplifies the electric currents. The current-to-voltage converter for each row generates the readout value for that row of the array responsive to the amplified electric currents.

Electronically code-multiplexed readout of photo-detector arrays

A high range resolution ladar includes a chirp generator for producing a chirp signal waveform that is used by a laser diode to propagate a divergent laser light waveform. The reflected light signals from the target are directed to a self mixing detector that is coupled to the chirp generator where the responsivity of the detector varies in accordance with the chirp waveform for converting reflected light signals from the target to electrical signals and for mixing the converted electrical signal with the chirp waveform to produce an output electrical signal whose frequency is proportional to the range to the target. The self-mixing detector includes at least one detector having a semiconductor substrate and first and second electrodes deposited on the substrate and spaced from each other, wherein the first set of electrodes is connected to the chirp generator and the second set of electrodes is connected to a memory for storing a plurality of frames of image data.

Ladar system for detecting objects

A laser transmitter is amplitude modulated with a chirp signal to illumin an entire scene or field of view. A mixing process occurs in the received light path using an electro-optic light modulator positioned just in front of the focal plane detector array. The detector array detects and integrates the mixed light signal over some field of view. Numerous image frames are recorded periodically in the time over the FM period. The Fourier transform taken over time for a pixel establishes the range to the target in that pixel. Performing the Fourier transform for all pixels yields a three-dimensional image of objects in the field of view. Such an arrangement yields a scannerless ladar possessing high range resolution with no range ambiguities.

Scannerless ladar architecture employing focal plane detector arrays and

In a high range resolution ladar, a chirp signal waveform is propagated as a divergent laser light waveform and the target reflected return is collected and converted to a current proportional to power. An undelayed chirp signal is added in a mixer to the return current and then low pass filtered to recover a mixed intermediate frequency (IF) signal having a frequency proportional to the target range. Periodically, the light circuit is interrupted and the chirp signal is processed through the mixer and low pass filter without a target return current and this output, the mixer self-clutter, is stored. This stored self-clutter signal is subsequently subtracted from the mixed IF signal on a chirp by chirp basis to cancel the self-clutter produced by the mixer. The subtracted signal is then frequency analyzed to determine target range.

Growing community of inventors

Catonsville, MD, United States of America

William Charles Ruff