US 8,134,103 B2 · Burnout time estimation and early thrust termination determination for a boosting target

Abstract

A system senses the presence of a boosting missile or target and processes the information by comparison of the data with a plurality of predetermined templates of nominal missile characteristics, in order to determine the state of the missile. The processing includes estimation of burnout time and of early thrust termination. Both are determined by generating current stage state estimates including position, velocity, time index error into the thrust template, and motor scale factor error. The change in motor scale factor is compared with a threshold to determine if early thrust termination has occurred. The estimated burnout time of the current stage is calculated from the burnout times of the current and the previous stage processed with the estimated motor scale factor and with state estimates from a filter.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for estimating staging of a boosting target, said method comprising the steps of:

sensing position of the boosting target from moment to moment to thereby generate target position information;
generating current stage state estimates including position, velocity, time index error de{circumflex over (l)}T into a thrust acceleration template, and motor scale factor {circumflex over (K)};
determining estimated burnout time tBOEst of the current stage by
t
BOEst
=
(
stageTimeCurrent
-
stageTimePast
)
K
^
+
stageTimePastEst
-
offsetError
+
de
⁢
l
^
⁢
⁢
T
K
^
where
stageTimeCurrent=nominal current stage burnout time;
stageTimePast=nominal past stage burnout time;
stageTimePastEst=estimated value of the previous stage burnout time;
{circumflex over (K)} and de{circumflex over (l)}T=state estimates from the filter;
offsetError=initial difference between template_index and measured Time;
and using said estimated burnout time to predict a future location of said target.

31 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Burnout time estimation and early thrust termination determination for a boosting target

Life of this patent

Burnout time estimation and early thrust termination determination for a boosting target

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18