US 6,714,845 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for intercepting an evading target alerted at seeker turn-on

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy

InventorsRobert F. Pinkos, Anthony F. Bessacini

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for directing a pursuing vehicle, such as a torpedo, on an intercept trajectory from a launching vehicle to a target vehicle with evasion capabilities and the target vehicle is alerted to pursuing vehicle at the time that the pursuing vehicle enables its seeker. Models of the pursuing vehicle and evading target provide proposed trajectories based upon various environmental considerations. A guidance system uses estimates of initial operating parameter solutions for the pursuing vehicle, such as gyro angle, intercept time and run-to-enable time, to begin a convergent, iterative process that defines final operating parameter solutions from which the guidance parameters are determined and transferred to the pursuing vehicle at launch.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A control method for directing a pursuing vehicle from a launching vehicle to a target vehicle by supplying to guidance means in the pursuing vehicle operating parameters prior to launching wherein the pursuing vehicle includes means that are enabled after launch and wherein the target vehicle becomes alerted to the presence of the pursuing vehicle when those means are enabled, said method comprising the steps of:

generating a representation of a characteristic trajectory from a generic model of pursuing vehicle trajectory;
generating, in response to data from the identification means, a representation of a characteristic trajectory from a generic model of target vehicle trajectory including the expected enablement range and a plurality of possible evasive actions for the target vehicle;
providing initial values for operating parameters;
iteratively propagating the characteristic trajectories to intercept in response to the initial values of the operating parameters according to a plurality of approximation relationships until the solutions converge and thereafter determining an enablement range from the target vehicle to the pursuing vehicle;
selecting a target vehicle evasive maneuver;
and
transferring the operating parameters that produce the convergence to the pursuing vehicle guidance means.

4 more elements

A control system for directing a pursuing vehicle from a launching vehicle to a target vehicle by supplying, to guidance means in the pursuing vehicle, guidance parameters prior to launching wherein the launching vehicle includes identification means for establishing predetermined target vehicle operating characteristics, the pursuing vehicle including active sensor means that are activated at the run-to-enable time and the target vehicle becoming alerted to the pursuing vehicle only at the run-to-enable time, said control system comprising:

means for generating a representation of a characteristic trajectory from a generic model of pursuing vehicle trajectory;
means for generating, in response to data from the identification means, a representation of a characteristic trajectory from a generic model of target vehicle trajectory including a plurality of evasive maneuvers;
means for providing initial values for the operating parameters;
means for iteratively propagating the characteristic trajectories in response to the initial operating parameters according to a plurality of approximation relationships until the solutions converge, means for determining the enablement range from the target vehicle to the pursuing vehicle at the run-to-enable time and means for determining course changes as a result of an evasive maneuver;
and
means for transferring the operating parameters that produce the convergence to the pursuing vehicle guidance means.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.