PROJECTILE FOLLOWER TRACKING CONTROL SYSTEM

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSED ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT IS A FEASIBILITY STUDY AND DESIGN OF AN AUTONOMOUS REAL TIME TRACKING CONTROL SUBSYSTEM FOR A PROJECTILE FOLLOWER TRACKING SYSTEM. THE TRACKING CONTROL SUBSYSTEM WILL EXPAND THE CAPABILITY OF A PROJECTILE FOLLOWER SYSTEM THAT USES A SYNCHRONOUSLY DRIVEN ROTATING MIRROR THAT FOLLOWS THE PROJECTILE MOTION BY: (1) INCORPORATING A SHORT PULSE, HIGH REPETITION RATE LASER RANGING SYSTEM FOR PROJECTILE ILLUMINATION, (2) USING A QUADRANT AVALANCHE OR PINNED PHOTODIODE CENTROID TRACKER TO GENERATE POSITION AND RANGE INFORMATION (3) USING A SMALL INNER LOOP VERY WIDEBAND IMAGE MOTION COMPENSATION MIRROR BEAMSTEERER CONTROLLED BY THE CENTROID TRACKER (4) CORRECTING THE OUTER LOOP LARGE MIRROR WITH THE AVERAGE POSITION OF THE INNER MIRROR (5) ADJUSTING THE FOCUS OF THE OPTICAL DATA ACQUISITION INSTRUMENTATION WITH THE CENTROID TRACKER RANGE INFORMATION (6) EXPANDING THE EXTERNAL INTERFACE ASSEMBLY TO ACCEPT ADDITIONAL CONTROL INFORMATION FROM RADARS, ETC. (7) USING THE SHORT PULSE LASER ILLUMINATION TO DYNAMICALLY EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF OPTICAL IMAGING SYSTEM.