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

• US 8,134,103 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2006
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Luu, Thu-Van T., Boka, Jeffrey B., Harcourt, Michael J., Mookerjee, Purusottam
• Primary Examiner(s): GREGORY, BERNARR E
• Application Number:
  US11/646,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20110025551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,903 Days
• Field of Search: 244 31- 33, 89/11.1, 342/59, 342 61- 69, 342 82-115, 342/118, 342/146, 342/147, 342/175, 342/195, 342 52- 56
• US Class Current: 244/3.1
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 5/08 Ground-based tracking-systems for aerial targets
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 11/02 Anti-aircraft or anti-guided missile or anti-torpedo defence installations or systems cartridges or missiles for producing smoke or for dispensing radar chaff or infrared material F42B5/15, F42B12/48, F42B12/70; informative reference: details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00; jamming or electronic countermeasures G01S7/38, G01S7/495, H04K3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/723 by using numerical data

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.

Claims

1. 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 t_BOEst of the current stage by

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using said prediction of a future location of said target to guide an antimissile asset toward said target.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing step is performed using a radar system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing step is performed using an infrared sensor.

5. A method for determining early thrust termination of a boosting target, said method comprising the steps of:

sensing position of the boosting target to thereby generate target position information;

generating current stage state estimates including position, velocity, time index error into a thrust acceleration template, and motor scale factor {circumflex over (K)};

determining if target has early thrust terminated using the motor scale factor.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said determining step comprises the steps of:

increasing a K covariance value relative to an initial K covariance value and decreasing a time error covariance value relative to an initial time index error covariance value;

shifting a current estimate of {circumflex over (K)} into a temporary storage location, finite length K estimate register, with a corresponding storage time tag;

calculating KDelta by taking difference between the newest {circumflex over (K)} in the register and an oldest {circumflex over (K)} in the register;

comparing the value of KDelta with a threshold value; and

if the change in KDelta is greater than the threshold value, indicating that early thrust termination has occurred.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein if the change in KDelta is less than the threshold value, continued thrusting of the boosting target is deemed to have occurred.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising guiding an antimissile asset toward said target using said early thrust determination.

9. A system for estimating staging of a boosting target, said system comprising:

a processor for executing instructions for;

sensing a position of the boosting target to generate target position information;

generating current stage state estimates for said boosting target including position, velocity, time index error into a thrust acceleration template, and motor scale factor;

using said current, stage state estimates for said boosting target to determine an estimated burnout time of the boosting target; and

using said estimated burnout time of the boosting target to predict a future location of said boosting target.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the step of determining estimated burnout time of the current stage employs the formula:

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the sensing step is performed using a radar system or an infrared sensor.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising using said prediction of a future location of said target to guide an antimissile asset toward said target.

13. A system for determining early thrust termination of a boosting target, said system comprising:

a processor for executing instructions for;

sensing a position of the boosting target to generate target position information;

generating current stage state estimates for said boosting target including position, velocity, time index error into a thrust acceleration template, and motor scale factor; and

determining if the boosting target has an early thrust terminated using the motor scale factor.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said determining step comprises the steps of:

increasing a covariance value of the motor scale factor relative to an initial covariance value of the motor scale factor and decreasing a time error covariance value relative to an initial time index error covariance value;

shifting a current estimate of the motor scale factor into a temporary storage register, with a corresponding storage time tag;

calculating a difference between a newest motor scale factor in the register and an oldest motor scale factor in the register;

comparing the difference with a threshold value; and

using the difference to determine if early thrust termination has occurred for the boosting target.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein if the difference is greater than a threshold value, early thrust termination is deemed to have occurred.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein if the difference is less than a threshold value, continued thrusting of the boosting target is deemed to have occurred.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the sensing step is performed using a radar system or an infrared sensor.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising guiding an antimissile asset toward said target using said early thrust determination.