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. 13, 1996
Filed:
Aug. 01, 1991
William M Johnson, Sudbury, MA (US);
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A space-based command guidance controller and controlled deliverable traveling at speeds of about Mach five are cooperative to cause the deliverable to follow a coherent designator beam controlled by the space-based command guidance controller to be delivered to a target location, eventually designated by the beam along an over-the-horizon trajectory, and into a target thereat with surgical-like precision. The command guidance controller includes an optical tracker and coherent designator laser assembly and an inertially-stabilized tracker that are cooperative to produce a command guidance signal representative of that controlled deliverable maneuver that enables the controlled deliverable, upon the execution thereof, to conform its trajectory to the intended trajectory, and eventually, to impact the intended target. The controlled deliverable includes an autopilot that executes the maneuver represented by the command guidance signal in order to bring the controlled deliverable into local conformance to the intended trajectory. The controlled deliverable includes an optical roll sensor having a negligible scale-factor-error. The intended target location may include a static and/or a dynamic target object.