Image guided weapon system and method
First Claim
1. A system for guiding a weapon employing passive optical terminal guidance, comprising:
- (a) an imaging device that generates a digital image of a target area;
(b) an aimpoint selection device that selects an aimpoint in said target area;
(c) a GPS detector that establishes positional coordinates;
(d) a first processor that generates an image template from said digital image, said aimpoint, and said positional coordinates;
(e) a seeker onboard said weapon, that generates real-time images of said target area; and
(f) a second processor that correlates said image template with said real-time images from said seeker.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An image guided weapon system employing passive optical terminal guidance d method which provides the precision strike capability without requiring the use of a designator or the presence of an additional designator aircraft, which can operate through the weather, which allows rapid attack of multiple targets, and which does not require any aircraft to remain in the target area after a weapon has been launch. A target area is designated and an image of the target area is generated. An aimpoint within the target area is selected and GPS coordinates of the aimpoint are determined. An image template is generated using flight orientation data, the image of the target area, and GPS coordinates of aimpoint. Image processing software creates an image template which is downloaded to a weapon. The weapon'"'"'s seeker generates seeker images which are compared to the image template. Once a satisfactory correlation between the image template and the seeker image is made, the aimpoint coordinates are updated and the weapon is guided to the target.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A system for guiding a weapon employing passive optical terminal guidance, comprising:
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(a) an imaging device that generates a digital image of a target area; (b) an aimpoint selection device that selects an aimpoint in said target area; (c) a GPS detector that establishes positional coordinates; (d) a first processor that generates an image template from said digital image, said aimpoint, and said positional coordinates; (e) a seeker onboard said weapon, that generates real-time images of said target area; and (f) a second processor that correlates said image template with said real-time images from said seeker. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for guiding a weapon employing passive optical terminal guidance, comprising:
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(a) an imaging device that generates a digital image of a target area; (b) an aimpoint selection device that selects an aimpoint in said target area; (c) a GPS detector that establishes GPS coordinates; (d) a first processor that generates an image template from said digital image, said aimpoint, and said GPS coordinates; (e) a seeker onboard said weapon, that generates real-time images of said target area; (f) a second processor that correlates said image template with said real-time images from said seeker; and (g) a navigation device that guides said weapon to said aimpoint using said image template and said real-time images from said seeker. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for guiding a weapon employing passive optical terminal guidance to a target, comprising the steps of:
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(a) generating a digital image of a target to include an area surrounding said target; (b) selecting an aimpoint to designate said target; (c) acquiring GPS coordinates for said aimpoint; (d) generating an image template from said digital image, said aimpoint, and said GPS coordinates; (e) detecting images of said target with a passive optical seeker onboard said weapon; and (f) correlating said images from said passive optical seeker with said image template. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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Specification