Guided delivery of small munitions from an unmanned aerial vehicle

• US 8,178,825 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2008
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Goossen, Emray R, Martinez, Steven D
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr
• Application Number:
  US12/259,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20110017863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,295 Days
• Field of Search: 244 31- 33, 244/4.R, 244/17.11, 244/17.19, 244/75.1, 244/76.R, 244/175, 244/189, 244/190, 89/11, 89/11.1, 382/100, 382/103, 382/104, 701 1- 18, 342 52- 55, 342 60- 68, 342/89, 342/90, 342/175, 342192-197, 348169-172
• US Class Current: 244/3.14
• CPC Class Codes: F41G 7/303 Sighting or tracking devices especially provided for simultaneous observation of the target and of the missile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/7864 T.V. type tracking systems

Abstract

The present invention provides apparatus and methods for accurate guidance of small munitions to a target. The guidance for the small munition is mainly provided by a device external to the small munition, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV may provide external guidance commands by use of a command transmitter to the small munition. The small munition is equipped to receive the guidance commands and consequently use a maneuvering mechanism to react to the guidance commands. The UAV may determine a successful release point of the small munition and track a flight path from a release point toward the target of the small munition using a passive sensor mounted in a gimbaled mount, which is controlled by use of a closed-loop control system. The UAV may be controlled by a ground control device, such as an operator control unit (OCU), to release small munitions.

Claims

1. A system for delivering and guiding a munition from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to a target, comprising:

a passive sensor mounted on the UAV, the passive sensor providing a sensor output corresponding to a sensed condition associated with an area being traversed by the UAV, and the passive sensor capable of being articulated with respect to the UAV as controlled by a gimbal controller;

a command transmitter for transmitting commands from the UAV to the munition, the munition having at least one command receptor for receiving the commands, and the commands assisting in guiding the munition to the target;

a first radio mounted on the UAV for transceiving communications to and from a ground control system, the ground control system including an operator control unit having a second radio, a display, and a user input mechanism to allow a user to select and transmit to the first radio at least one image feature corresponding to the target; and

a feature processing device for operating the UAV processing sensor data received from the gimbaled sensor, and determining commands to be transmitted by the command transmitter based on the received sensor data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the commands to be transmitted by the command transmitter include corrections determined by a closed loop control system that calculates a position error value.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the position error value is on a position of the mutation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the gimbaled sensor is an optical sensor and wherein the command transmitter is an optical transmitter.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the optical sensor is a video camera, wherein the optical transmitter is a broad beam infrared laser, and wherein the at least one command receptor is an open loop infrared sensor.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the feature processing device stabilizes the sensor based on a sensed condition associated with the image feature.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operator control unit extracts an image position of the at least one image feature corresponding to the target and transmits that extracted image position to the first radio.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the munition includes an orientation marking, and wherein a position and orientation of the munition are determined based on information in the sensor output.

9. A method of sending commands to a munition, comprising:

determining a target;

releasing the munition;

using a passive sensor mounted on a gimbaled mount that is controlled by a controller, generating image data related to a flight path of the munition;

determining centering coordinates for the passive sensor, wherein the centering coordinates are used to maintain the munition in a field of view of the passive sensor;

controlling the controller with the centering coordinates to stabilize the image data from the passive sensor;

determining if the munition is on target based on the image data related to the flight path; and

responsive to determining the munition is not on target, sending a command from a control processor to the munition while the munition is in flight.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining a possible successful release point for the munition before releasing the munition.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the passive sensor is a video camera.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein controlling the controller with the centering coordinates further comprises articulating the passive sensor with the gimbaled mount to track the flight path of the munition.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining if the munition is within a field of view of a command transmitter configured to transmit a command signal, and

responsive to determining the munition is not within a field of view of the command transmitter, disarming the munition.

14. A feature processing device, comprising:

a sensor payload, comprising a passive sensor mounted in a gimbaled mount, wherein the passive sensor generates image data;

a gimbal controller that uses a closed-loop control technique to control the gimbaled mount based on centering a field of view of the passive sensor around a feature extracted from the image data; and

a control processor, configured to process the image data from the passive sensor and to generate guidance commands for a munition.

15. The feature processing device of claim 14, further comprising a radio, equipped to transmit the image data.

16. The feature processing device of claim 14, wherein the control processor is further configured to:

transmit centering coordinate to the gimbal controller;

receive vehicle guidance/payload positioning data as an input and generate navigation data;

stabilize the image data; and

receive the navigation data and generate the centering coordinates and the guidance commands for the munition.

17. The feature process device of claim 16, wherein the control processor is further configured to:

extract a position of the munition from the image data and the navigation data;

extract one or more feature positions based on the image data; and

extract a munition orientation based on the image data.

18. The feature processing device of claim 17, wherein the control processor is further configured to generate the guidance commands and the centering coordinates based on the munition position, the one or more feature positions, and the munition orientation.

19. The feature processing device of claim 18, wherein the control processor is further configured to calculate a predicted position of the munition.