Method of autonomous target acquisition

A method of autonomous target acquisition for an imaging self guided explosive canister launched by a millitary battery, comprising the steps of:

• exposing an active sensor imaging system on a sensor platform to a direct view of an enemy area of a battlefield to obtain a sensed image and transmitting said sensed image therefrom;
• receiving said sensed image in a TV receiver of an image processing computer system and converting the sensed TV image from analog to digital while performing enhancement and target cueing algorithms on said sensed TV image and displaying the enhanced targets in digital form on a light sensitive screen of a cathode ray tube;
• performing a manipulation of the digitized information on the light sensitive screen by a crew chief man-in-the-loop viewing the sensed TV image display and annotating selected targets to be hit by said military battery imaging self guided explosive canister by a light pen light beam means and manipulation of said image processing computer system which is electrically connected with an on-board microcomputer system within each of a plurality of imaging self guided explosive canisters to assign a specific imaging self guided explosive canister to a specific target wherein said image processing computer system automatically provides said microcomputer with a digital target map of the sensed TV image including the crew chief manipulated annotated target;
• launching said imaging self guided explosive canister toward the battlefield enemy area while unshielding a canister active imaging system wherein said canister active imaging system provides said microcomputer system with a continuous sensed image picture of said enemy area;
• and
• automatically sequencing a program stored within said microcomputer system for matching said digital target map to said continuous sensed image by rotating said digital target map using mathematical algorithms to match said annotated target to its spatial position of said continuous sensed image picture of said enemy area and after the matching step is complete activating a terminal guidance system for autonomous guidance of said canister to said annotated target.