Passive Optical System To Determine The Trajectory Of Targets At Long Range

A method for determining the trajectory of a target comprising:

• acquiring a time series of images of a target from a camera on a moving platform (ownship) having a known bearing and velocity;
• determining an initial estimated state vector for the target, including the bearing of the target with respect to the ownship, based on the time series of images;
• and
• simulating the launch of a plurality of virtual twins of the ownship at intervals over time as the ownship proceeds, for each virtual twin:
• (a) propagating the state vector forward in time along a predetermined path continuing that of the ownship to generate a time series of updated state vectors for the target;
• (b) modifying the trajectory of the ownship to follow a path different from that of the virtual twin to thereby create a baseline separation between the ownship and virtual twin for observation of the target;
• (c) acquiring a time series of images of the target from the ownship moving along the modified trajectory, synchronous with the time series of updated state vectors for the virtual twin;
• (d) determining the bearing of the target with respect to the ownship in the time series of images along the modified trajectory;
• and
• (e) estimating the trajectory of the target by triangulation based on the paths of the ownship and virtual twin, and the time series of bearing data from the ownship and virtual twin.

A method for determining the trajectory of a target comprising:

• acquiring a time series of images of a target from a camera on a moving platform (ownship) having a known bearing and velocity;
• determining an initial estimated state vector for the target, including the bearing of the target with respect to the ownship, based on the time series of images;
• simulating the launch of a virtual twin of the ownship by propagating the state vector forward in time along a predetermined path continuing that of the ownship to generate a time series of updated state vectors for the target using a stochastic filter;
• modifying the trajectory of the ownship to follow a path different from that of the virtual twin to thereby create a baseline separation between the ownship and virtual twin for observation of the target;
• acquiring a time series of images of the target from the ownship moving along the modified trajectory, synchronous with the time series of updated state vectors for the virtual twin;
• determining the bearing of the target with respect to the ownship in the time series of images along the modified trajectory;
• and
• estimating the trajectory of the target by triangulation based on the paths of the ownship and virtual twin, and the time series of bearing data from the ownship and virtual twin.