Dynamic warhead pointing and stabilization independent from flight vector
AssigneeFLIR Unmanned Aerial Systems ULC
InventorsNathan Knoebel, Matthew Titensor, Miguel Perez
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods include an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a body and a plurality of propulsion systems, a gimbal system having a plurality of targeting sensors and a warhead mount configured to carry and deploy a warhead, and a logic device. The logic device is configured to detect a target along a UAV flight path, track the target using sensed data from the targeting sensors, calculate an attack vector for the UAV to intercept the target, calculate a detonation angle for the warhead with respect to the attack vector and a selected location on the target, and instruct the gimbal system to orient the warhead at the detonation angle.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprising a body and a plurality of propulsion systems;
- a gimbal system comprising a plurality of targeting sensors and a warhead mount configured to carry and deploy a warhead;
- a logic device configured to:
- detect a target along a UAV flight path;
- track the target using sensed data from the targeting sensors;
- calculate an attack vector for the UAV to intercept the target;
- calculate a detonation angle for the warhead with respect to the attack vector and a selected location on the target;
- and
- instruct the gimbal system to orient the warhead at the detonation angle.
A method comprising:
- detecting a target along an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight path, the UAV comprising a body, a plurality of propulsion systems, and a gimbal system comprising a plurality of targeting sensors and a warhead mount configured to carry and deploy a warhead
- tracking the target using sensed data from at least one of the targeting sensors;
- calculating an attack vector for the UAV to intercept the target;
- calculating a detonation angle for the warhead with respect to the attack vector and a selected location on the target;
- and
- instructing the gimbal system to orient the warhead at the detonation angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.