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:
Dec. 22, 1987
Filed:
Feb. 28, 1986
Kam C Lau, Gaithersburg, MD (US);
Robert J Hocken, Barnesville, MD (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Commerce, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
A tracking system for measuring at least the spatial coordinates of a target and possibly the angular orientation of the target. A collimated beam is directed to the target and a mirror attached to the target reflects this beam back to a tracking point. Photosensors attached to the tracking or target point provide error signals to a servo system which controls optics at the tracking or target points to provide the direction necessary to accomplish the coincidence of the beams. An interferometer interferes the source beam with the beam that has travelled twice between the tracking and target points in order to measure the separation. By measuring the directions of the beams relative to structure attached to the tracking and target points, the target point can be located in spatial coordinates and additionally the orientation of the target structure can be determined.