Robotic defilade system

• US 8,327,748 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2007
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vincent Paul Conroy
• Original Assignee: Vincent Paul Conroy
• Inventors: Conroy, Vincent Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Danny
• Application Number:
  US11/986,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173045A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: 361/47, 89/360.2, 89/360.7, 89/360.9
• US Class Current: 89/36.02
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 11/08 Barbed-wire obstacles; Barricades; Stanchions; Tank traps; Vehicle-impeding devices; Caltrops making barbed wire B21F25/00; barbed-wire fencing E04H17/04; road barricades, obstructing passage of vehicles or pedestrians E01F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: F41H 5/06 Shields in ships B63G9/00; in aircraft B64D7/00 ; blasting mats F42D5/05
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0038 by providing the operator with simple or augmented images from one or more cameras located onboard the vehicle, e.g. tele-operation images analyzed by a computer and used for automatic navigation G05D1/0246

Abstract

A stout wall assembly which self-transports under remote control or onboard machine logic is disclosed. It combines three very well understood and proven technologies into a novel, new military system for creating protected positions behind very strong cover while a formation is in motion or stationary. The wall assembly is unmanned and is designed to sacrificially block any destructive effects directed at the protected object in its lee. It provides a non-pyrotechnical, passive, always-on, solid, physical barrier defense with no reaction or recycle time whatsoever, an unlimited duty cycle, and minimal possibility of fratricide or collateral damage. It can defeat or degrade kinetic energy, blast, fragmentation, fire, particulate, shaped charge, and high explosive squash head weapons and is uniquely capable against street-level improvised explosive devices.

Claims

1. A method for protecting objects and personnel from attack comprising:

(a) rigorously determining the Requirements including at a minimum what is to be protected, what the threat is, what the environment is, and what constitutes success;

(b) selecting a substantial physical barrier that will support the mission and defeat the threat specified;

(c) selecting a vehicle as carrier that can carry said substantial physical barrier reliably throughout the required environments;

(d) designing the vehicle'"'"'s armor system to protect the carrier vehicle itself and to complement said substantial physical barrier in shielding the protected object in accordance with the Requirements;

(e) selecting a command and control system for the vehicle and the controller that will support the Requirements;

(f) integrating said substantial physical barrier, the carrier vehicle, the carrier vehicle armor, and the command and control system and formally developing the production data package through an iterative set of steps incorporating successively greater levels of detail in the configurations designed and tested;

whereby the performance standard set forth in the Requirements is met.

2. A substantial physical barrier which self-transports, is unmanned, is expendable, and is able to be remotely controlled or to generate guidance instructions for itself using onboard machine logic so as to position itself in a stationary or moving position between a stationary or moving protected object and a possible threat to said protected object and to maintain said position except as updated by externally or internally generated updated instructions and thereby to create a protected lee for said protected object behind a passive, physical, solid, non-pyrotechnical barrier that, once in place, is always on, has no reaction or recycle time whatsoever, and has an unlimited duty cycle and which can completely or partially block the destructive effects of the firing, detonation, or dispersal of weapons from a group including bullets and kinetic energy weapons, blast weapons, fragmentation weapons, flame weapons, the kill mechanisms of all three variants of shaped charge warheads, and the high explosive squash head.

3. The barrier of claim 2 wherein said substantial physical barrier comprises a plurality of devices and systems from a group including a mission armor payload structure comprising one or more penetration-resistant walls attached to the vehicle in a vertical, horizontal, or slanted orientation plus their supports and mounting devices and the armor, engine, ladder frame, transmission, gearboxes, and other structure of the vehicle carrying said mission armor payload structure, the strength of said substantial physical barrier being the optimized integrated assembly of its subsystems and components and their large cross section in the plane through which destructive devices must pass.

4. The barrier of claim 3 wherein the armor for said mission armor payload structure and for said vehicle carrying said mission armor payload structure is from a group including steel, aluminum, other metals, alloys, ceramics, concrete, construction materials, and containers of fluid.

5. The barrier of claim 2 wherein the guidance and control system for the vehicular component uses guidance and control similar to that proven in guided missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles including remote control or self-generated guidance or both based on pre-programmed or downloaded instructions and using technical approaches from a group including cameras on the vehicle sending imagery to the controller;

inertial, GPS, or other position-determination systems; and

command, semi-active command-to-line-of-sight, semi-active homing, beam riding, and autonomous guidance mechanisms.

6. The barrier of claim 5 wherein the agent controlling the vehicle uses linkages to the onboard control systems from a group including wire and fiber optic cable;

radio and electro-optical transmissions; and

relays via ground-based relays, unmanned aerial vehicles and other aircraft, and satellites.