Closed loop defined profile current controller for electromagnetic rail gun applications
First Claim
1. An electromagnetic rail gun comprising:
- two gun rails;
a projectile slidingly engaged between said rails;
at least one pulsed alternator for generating a pulsed current;
at least one power converter for applying said generated current to said rails; and
a closed-loop controller for controlling a muzzle velocity of said projectile, comprising;
a means for measuring alternator current and alternator voltage;
a means for calculating an anticipated velocity of said projectile using information about said alternator current and said alternator voltage to calculate electrical and magnetic fields impacting said projectile;
a means for calculating a rail current that will result in a specified projectile muzzle velocity using information regarding said electrical and magnetic fields; and
a means for adjusting said gun current, wherein said closed-loop controller does not include a sensor on said rail gun providing information about a speed of said projectile.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A closed loop current controller for an electromagnetic rail gun. It is necessary to control the muzzle velocity of a rail gun accurately for the gun to be a good artillery device. The present invention provides a closed loop control system to accurately regulate the energy transfer to a rail gun projectile and control its muzzle velocity. The rail gun control system includes a state space (state domain) control concept adapted to discrete control events that transition the system from one state to another until the final desired state (i.e., muzzle velocity) is reached. The control regulator preferably generates state transition functions that transition the projectile from state to state according to a defined current profile to provide a specified projectile muzzle velocity. The rail gun closed loop current controller also includes current reference compensation to correct for errors in previous state transitions.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. An electromagnetic rail gun comprising:
-
two gun rails; a projectile slidingly engaged between said rails; at least one pulsed alternator for generating a pulsed current; at least one power converter for applying said generated current to said rails; and a closed-loop controller for controlling a muzzle velocity of said projectile, comprising; a means for measuring alternator current and alternator voltage; a means for calculating an anticipated velocity of said projectile using information about said alternator current and said alternator voltage to calculate electrical and magnetic fields impacting said projectile; a means for calculating a rail current that will result in a specified projectile muzzle velocity using information regarding said electrical and magnetic fields; and a means for adjusting said gun current, wherein said closed-loop controller does not include a sensor on said rail gun providing information about a speed of said projectile. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method for controlling the muzzle velocity of a projectile in an electromagnetic rail gun comprising the steps of:
-
measuring alternator current and alternator voltage; calculating electrical and magnetic field states impacting said projectile; calculating an anticipated velocity based on said calculated electrical and magnetic field states; generating a pulsed current with at least one pulsed alternator, wherein said pulsed current is based on said anticipated velocity; applying said generated pulsed current to the rails using at least one power converter to move said projectile down the rails according to said calculated electrical and magnetic field states. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. An electromagnetic rail gun incorporating state transitions, comprising:
-
two gun rails; a projectile slidingly engaged between said rails; at least one pulsed alternator for generating a pulsed current; at least one power converter for applying said generated current to said rails; a pulsed alternator observer for monitoring the voltage and current of said at least one pulsed alternator; a gun observer for monitoring the current within the rails; a gun loader for automatically loading additional projectiles into sliding engagement between said rails; a means for calculating electrical field and magnetic field states based on said voltage and current of said at least one pulsed alternator; and a means of calculating a rail current that will result in a specified projectile muzzle velocity, wherein said rail gun does not include a sensor on said rail gun providing information about a speed of said projectile.
-
Specification