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:
Apr. 03, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 28, 1999
Peter N. Stiles, Owego, NY (US);
Chris A. Bodenhorn, Vestal, NY (US);
Robert J. Szczerba, Endicott, NY (US);
Lockheed Martin Corporation, Owego, NY (US);
Abstract
A dynamic optimal sensor employment system and method is used for searching an area. Each time the sensor in the search vehicle is activated, the dynamic optimal sensor employment system (“the system”) determines which areas were searched at that moment. It does this by using a terrain database, information about the sensor state when it scanned (azimuth, elevation, mode, etc.), and a line-of-sight algorithm. The system determines this instantaneous coverage not only for the primary search vehicle, designated “ownership”, but also for other teammates who report scan information to ownship via digital messages. The system maintains a dynamic history of all areas (e.g. 30 meter by 30 meter square “cells” of ground) that have been searched. Each cell has a counter that indicates how many time it has been scanned, and each time cells are scanned with ownship or team sensors the counter is incremented. Cells that are too steep or otherwise non-trafficable by a land vehicle, such as a lake or a river, are marked ahead of time to indicate there is no need to search them. The system then dynamically determines what sensor activations are required to search the areas that are known to be trafficable but have not yet been scanned by ownship or teammates. Specifically, it determines the time, location, direction, field-of-view, and altitude that best satisfy an optimization criteria, and then automatically activates the sensor to generate this coverage.