The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 02, 1983
Filed:
Jul. 13, 1981
Donald E Cole, Covina, CA (US);
John M Speicher, Upland, CA (US);
General Dynamics, Pomona Division, Pomona, CA (US);
Abstract
A system for proportionally navigating an airframe to a target wherein the airframe is maneuvered by an onboard flight control system including body rate gyros for detecting the movement of the airframe relative to a fixed reference. A target sensor is mounted for pivotal movement in the pitch and yaw planes on a gimbal assembly rigidly connected to the airframe body. Mechanisms, such as motor/tachometer/potentiometer assemblies, pivot the sensor in the pitch and yaw planes and provide signals representative of the angular rate of motion and angular position of the sensor. These signals, along with the sensor output, are utilized in a gimbal track loop for pivoting the sensor so that it tracks the target. The outputs of the body rate gyros are utilized to remove or decouple the airframe body motion from the gimbal track loop signal. The system eliminates the need for a costly and complex space stabilized gimballed sensor while offering improved performance over a system utilizing a pure body fixed sensor.