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:
Nov. 05, 1991
Filed:
May. 17, 1990
Gregory L Hobson, St. Peters, MO (US);
Kent Luetkemeyer, Maryland Heights, MO (US);
John R Wootton, St. Louis, MO (US);
Electronics & Space Corporation, St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
Apparatus (10) for acquiring and tracking a missile (M), and guiding it to a target (T). Beacons (18, 19) are carried on the missile to provide an indication of its location in a field of view. One beacon (18) is a xenon beacon which emits energy in a short wave-length portion of the light spectrum. The other beacon (19) is a thermal source which emits infrared radiation in a longer wave-length portion of the spectrum. A sight unit (20) includes both a xenon beacon detector and a forward looking infrared receiver (FLIR). The FLIR provides two independent channels (A, B) of video. An electrical signal developed within the sight unit is separately processed on both of the channels. One channel is used to develop a video display for an operator for target acquisition and tracking. The other channel is used for missile tracking and clutter and countermeasure (CM) rejection. A tracking unit (40) processes the signal to determine missile location relative to the target; and, if corrections to the missile freight path are necessary, a missile control unit (56) transmits them to the missile over wires (W). If two or more objects (M, D1, D2) are located in the field of view, a module (88) of the tracking unit undertakes a 'segmentation' process to differentiate and characterize the objects to determine which object is the missile and which is not.