Novel Low-Cost Full Position and Angular Orientation Sensors for Guidance and Control of Precision Munitions

The position and orientation of smart and guided projectiles, including gun-fired munitions and missiles, must be accurately known in order for them to be able to successfully reach their targets. While various techniques are presently used, they are limited in their accuracy or require significant amounts of power. In the proposed project a novel orientation angle sensor for guided, gun-fired munitions is proposed to be developed. The system comprises a ground-based polarized RF source and waveguide sensors on board the munition. The project will be focused on optimizing the design and location of sensors on the munition to determine full 3-D spatial orientation of the munition and the development of algorithms to determine the spatial orientation of the munition based on the received power at the sensors. Additionally, a novel means of determining the position of the munition using RF source and receivers will be investigated.