CH712974A2 - Device for controlling an intercepting drone. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention is based on a device for controlling an intercepting drone (6), which transmits guidance data with coded control commands to the intercepting drone in a solid angle. The interception drone control apparatus (6) includes a light beam generator (11), an encoder (13, 18) for encoding the generated light beam with the data necessary to control the trajectory of the interceptor drone (6) to a target drone are a deflection device (15) for gradually deflecting the light beam over a given number of subfields (23) of a scanning field (16) and a computer (22). The coding device (13, 18) and the deflection device (15) are mutually coupled with the aid of the computer (22) in order to generate on each subfield (23) of the scanning field (16) an individual code which at least serves as the first indication of the subfield (23), in which the intercepting drone (6) is located and designates the subfield (23) as a second indication, into which the intercepting drone (6) is to pass. The scanning field (16) for coding the intercepting drone (6) is radiatable into a variable conical solid angle, which comprises in the center the current location of the target drone.

Description

Description TECHNICAL FIELD The invention is based on a method for controlling a missile, in which guidance data with coded control commands are transmitted to a missile in a solid angle. Furthermore, the invention is based on a device for carrying out this method, which has means for generating coded guide data as well as for directional transmission into a solid angle.

Background of the Invention For some time now there has been a need in the military and civilian fields to protect objects such as buildings, camps or airfields from unauthorized viewing. This is usually done by an access security, by means of which the access of unauthorized persons to the object to be secured and thus also its inspection is prevented. However, there is not only the possibility of a direct inspection of the object by a person. For example, overflighting satellites or aircraft can also provide unauthorized persons with information about the object to be secured. For this to be reliably prevented, it is first necessary to detect intrusion attempts. Various monitoring systems are used for this purpose. For example, security cameras are used on fences, which are intended to prevent unidentified intrusion of persons into a security zone formed around an object to be secured. In the air military airspace surveillance serves the same purpose. If an unauthorized intrusion has been detected, appropriate countermeasures can be taken.

While intrusion attempts of persons and comparatively large manned ground vehicles or aircraft are relatively reliably prevented by the current systems, it has been found that in the course of technical progress in unmanned, miniaturized vehicles, an inhibition of the intrusion is often difficult and expensive.

Vehicles are understood not only ground vehicles, but in particular also aircraft such as micro-aircraft. These vehicles have since become so small and inconspicuous that they are not effectively addressed by many anti-intrusion devices. Corresponding vehicles can therefore be used with relatively good chances of success for educational purposes.

In particular, missiles represent an increasing threat potential. In this case, missiles are to be understood as meaning all types of aircraft, in particular helicopters, balloons or impact airships. Vertical take-off and landing aircraft, so-called VTOLs, thus also constitute missiles, as well as unmanned, multi-propelled devices, so-called UAVs or drones. These missiles may be technically designed so that they are not meaningfully addressed by the usual means to prevent entry into an airspace. Since the airspace over objects to be secured such as field camps or buildings is usually not protected by fences, walls or the like against unauthorized access, such missiles can be successfully used for reconnaissance or information gathering. Solutions in the Prior Art It is known from the prior art to directly attack missiles which have entered an airspace - hereinafter referred to as a target drone - by means of another missile - hereinafter referred to as intercept drones.

For example, RU 2 490 584 for the defense and control of target drones discloses a interceptor drone, which detects the target drone by means of its own radar and video detectors and ejects one to four stable nets against the target drone falls below a desired maximum distance. The nets are equipped with parachutes and remain connected to the interceptor drone via a rope connection when the net has captured the target drone.

A disadvantage of the proposed solution in the prior art is that the interceptor drone must be equipped with its own radar and video detectors. These detectors are often heavy and therefore can not be used, especially for smaller interception drones with limited payload. Furthermore, the known intercept drone with a complex evaluation logic for detecting the target drone, the trajectory control towards the target drone, the calculation of the maximum distance and the triggering of the networks as an agent against the target drone to equip. This evaluation logic is particularly costly.

From the fight against air targets by projectiles from guns is known to use steerable projectiles to improve the control performance, which are transmitted from a ground station steering data for bullet train correction in the final phase of the projectile trajectory.

For this purpose, from DE 4 416 211 a method for trajectory correction of temporally close successive projectiles of different shelves from a salvo of a machine gun using a laser beam is known. The beacon is not aimed at the respective projectile, but at the fast moving (air) target and this tracked. The individual projectiles take the data required for their corrections independently of the guide beam itself at a time determined by them. For this purpose, the guide beam is composed of a central one

Guide beam segment, which remains directed to the target, and at least four outer arranged around the central segment Leitstrahlsegmenten together. The light of the individual guide beam segments is modulated differently, so that the projectiles located in the guide beam can determine their placement on the basis of the respectively received modulation and know in which direction they have to be corrected. The distance between the centers of the individual outer Leitstrahlsegmente and the inner Leitstrahlsegment corresponds to the maximum correction possibility of the projectiles. If the directional angle of the correction in the respective outer guide beam segment is constant, then the projectile axis always lies within the central guide beam segment after the correction. With the help of a located in each floor evaluation electronics is determined with this information, the optimal triggering time for the corresponding correction charge.

Document EP 0 234 030 discloses an apparatus for directing one or more projectiles or rockets by means of an electromagnetic beacon, e.g. a C02 laser beam, with a spatial coding. For spatial coding of the guide beam on the one hand a modulator and on the other hand a scanning device are used, which are connected to each other via a computer. The beacon is e.g. with the help of a tracking device or manually constantly directed to the moving air target. With the scanning device, the guide beam is moved stepwise in order to scan the individual subfields of a scanning field with the guide beam. After each step, a code is transmitted to the sampled subfield of the scanning field by means of a modulator via the guide beam, such that a code for the actual position and a code for the desired position of the projectiles are generated on each subfield of the scanning field. As a result, several missiles can be controlled simultaneously in different fields.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a reliable and cost-effective method of preventing the ingress of missiles and into an air space. It is another object of the invention to provide a device for carrying out the method. In particular, it is an object of the invention to develop a known method for final phase steerable steerable projectiles for the application for intercept drones.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The device according to the invention for controlling an intercepting drone, with which this object is achieved, is characterized in that a first device for the stepwise deflection of an optical light beam over a predefined solid angle and a second device for coding the light beam via a computer are coupled together to generate a separate code on each subfield of a scanning field.

Preferably, with the aid of the first device for deflecting the light beam, a checkerboard-like scanning field is generated and each subfield of this scanning field is given its own code with the aid of the second device for coding the light beam. Instead of the checkered scanning field, a scanning field with circles or spirals or any other pattern can be generated.

An embodiment of the inventive device is described with reference to the accompanying drawing of a block diagram. The scanning field is radiated by a transmitting device in the room so that the solid angle of the scanning contains at least part of the trajectory of the interceptor drone, so that during this overlap data transfer to the interceptor drone can take place. Preferably, the scanning field is emitted to encode an intercepting drone in a fixed or variable space angle, which contains the current location of the target drone in the region of its center.

The inventive device for controlling a missile allows using a spatially modulated laser light beam to transmit an intercepting drone while her flight control data, with the help of which the intercepting drone can steer to the target drone until it has reached its destination.

The invention consists essentially in modulating a light beam, in particular electromagnetic light beam preferably in the infrared region of the optical spectrum and particularly preferably an IR laser beam first by an acousto-optical or electro-optical crystal with a code to the contains conveying information. The light source is a CO2 laser, a neodymium solid-state laser, particularly preferred are fiber lasers or diode lasers. To make it easier to elucidate the device according to the invention, radiation in a spectral range which can not be perceived by the human eye is preferred. The coded light beam is deflected by a suitable means, in particular a deflection or scanning mirror or preferably a rotating segment mirror such that it is e.g. produces a checkerboard-like scanning field, with 8 times 8 sub-fields exemplified in FIG. The deflected light beam illuminates each subfield until the required information is transmitted, and then proceeds to the next subfield. The change from one to the next subfield can be done continuously or stepwise.

The necessary energy for generating the scanning field 16 is very low, since at any one time only a subfield 23 of the scanning field 16 is illuminated. The coding should be arbitrary and can be changed as desired.

The inventive correction device consists of the following devices: a) device for generating the electromagnetic light beam; b) device for expanding the light beam and adjusting its divergence; c) Modulator for coding the light beam, e.g. with an acousto-optic or electro-optic crystal; d) zoom optics to adjust the light beam to the desired cross-sectional area, e) apparatus to deflect the modulated light beam, e.g. with a scanning mirror or with a crystal to produce a scanning field.

These devices are described in detail below, a) Apparatus for generating the electromagnetic light beam: The wavelength of such a light beam is e.g. 1.06 micron or 10.6 micron. In particular, a CO2 laser or a neodymium laser with an output power of 1-30 watts or a fiber laser or diode laser, b) device for expanding the light beam and adjusting its divergence: To expand the light beam is an «IR beam expander »Used with which the light beam can be widened several times. This device is suitable for light beams with a wavelength of 10.6 micron, which are generated by a CO2 laser. The device makes it possible to adjust the divergence of the light beam, c) Modulator for coding the light beam: For modulation and coding of the light beam, an akus-to-optical or electro-optical modulator is used. The driver electronics required for coding is part of the device. The modulation frequency is e.g. 10 MHz. d) zoom optics; The focusing device used is a zoom optic ZPO (Zoom Projection Optic) with which the beam cross section can be varied. This ensures that the beam cross-section in the area of the projectile to be corrected in its trajectory is always approximately constant, even though the projectile is farther and farther from the launching location. E) Device for deflecting the modulated light beam: The light beam is detected by means of a mirror Prism, or with the help of an acousto-optic or an electro-optical crystal deflected. The command syntax is listed in the following description, it allows to program and control the device via a computer. A distinction is made between different scanning methods, e.g. the raster scan method or the vector scan method. The grid-scan process creates a checkered pattern. With the vector scan method, any patterns can be generated, e.g. concentric circles, spirals, rectangular patterns in Cartesian coordinates or polar coordinates.

According to FIG. 1, the laser 11 fed by a current source 10 generates a laser beam light beam whose divergence is set by a device 12 for widening the light beam. By a modulator 13, the light beam is then encoded. The coded light beam is changed by a zoom lens 14 such that during flight of the intercept drone 6 e.g. the cross section of the light beam can be set as a function of distance. By a scanning mirror 15, the focused and coded light beam is deflected and generates the checkered scanning field 16. To the modulator 13 is connected via a driver 17, a coder 18 and the scanning mirror 15 is connected via a driver 19, a control member 20. To the zoom lens 14 is also connected via a driver 21, the control member 20. Both the encoder 18 and the control member 20 are connected to a common computer 22. In the checkerboard scanning field 16 of the laser beam different permissible positions of the interceptor drone 6 in different subfields 23 are indicated.

The operation of the control device described is as follows: The illustrated in Fig. 1, checkered scanning field 16 has in each row and in each column in this embodiment, each 8 subfields 23 and thus consists of 8 χ 8 = 64 subfields 23rd The number of subfields may include any other integer sizes. In each subfield 23, the light beam dwells, for example, the time t1 = 1.25 musec. The light beam thus requires 8 χ 1,25 = 10 musec to scan one line and then jumps to the beginning of the next line. For this, the light beam requires the time t.2 = 2.5musec. For scanning all lines, the light beam requires the time t3 = 8 χ (10 + 2.5) = 100 musec.

The scanning mirror 15 therefore oscillates at a frequency fa = 80 Hz in the row direction, i. E. in azimuth and with a frequency fe = 10 Hz in the column direction, i. in elevation. In the time t1 = 1.25 musec, in which the light beam dwells in a subfield 23, all the required information of the light beam must be transmitted to a receiver of the intercept drone 6. In this time t1 the intercept drone 6 is informed, in which subfield 23 it is located. For 64 subfields 23 each requires 3 bits for the name of the column and another 3 bits for the name of the line. Furthermore, the intercept drone 6 is informed, in which field it should go; again 2 χ 3 = 6 bits are required for this. For the actual and target position, 2 χ 6 = 12 bits are required. If in each case one reference bit has to be transmitted for azimuth and elevation, then each subfield 23 requires 14 bits each. This means that modulator 13 must transmit 14 bits in 1.25musec, i. in 1,25musec: 14 = 89 musec one bit has to be transmitted. The modulator 13 must therefore operate at a frequency of at least about 12 MHz. To avoid transmission errors, therefore, each piece of information is transmitted not only once, but for example ten times to the intercept drone 6. Therefore, the modulator must operate at 120 MHz instead of 12 MHz. In this way, the disturbing influence of the atmosphere can be largely eliminated. In addition, it is possible to transmit even more information on the trajectory of the target drone or a trigger signal or a time value for a blasting or disassembling the payload, in particular can be by exploiting the natural beam distribution or by an additional modulation the interceptor drone 6 in the middle of a Steering subfield 23. In addition, the described coding of the scanning field 16 allows to direct several interception drones 6 simultaneously in different sub-fields 23, without the need to change the coding.

Claims (8)

Various types of coding are applicable, the most robust for transmission in the atmosphere is the digital PPM (pulse-position modulation) method. The eight lines are each designated with three bits as follows: 000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110 and 111. Likewise, the eight columns are designated in the same way with three bits: 000, 001,010, 011,100,101,110 and 111. Thus, subfield 23 in the first row and in the first column has the code "000 000" and the subfield in the last row and in the last column has the code "111 111". The interceptor drone 6 has at least on a side surface or preferably on the bottom of a suitable receiving device. This can be composed of a photodetector with an upstream converging lens and a narrow-band filter, which is connected to a detector electronics comprising an amplifier, a filter and a decoder. Preferably, the radiated and thus received by the intercepting drone 6 transmission power of the light beam is so high that can be dispensed with a convergent lens. For steering the interceptor drone 6 known control elements are present, e.g. several variable speed rotors. In the intercepting drone, the signal strength of the received light beam is measured by means of suitable electronic components at regular time intervals, for example every second, and compared with historical values. If the signal strength has decreased, the intercept drone will make a rotation about the vertical center axis by a few angular degrees. If the signal strength increases, the rotation is continued accordingly, with decreasing signal strength, a rotation takes place in the opposite direction. The interceptor drone 6 further includes a payload, e.g. a net, a shaped charge, an explosive charge or dischargeable sub-projectiles and for supplying the various elements a power source. The payload used to combat the target drone may also be a hook for coupling the target drone and interceptor drone or a rod for disturbing the rotor rotation of the target drone. Particularly preferably, the trailing 6 has a receiving device with a locking device for the payload, so that different payload modules of the same size can be introduced and locked in this recording device before the start of the interceptor drone 6. This makes it possible in a particularly simple manner to adapt the quality of the fight against a target drone the current circumstances and the local rules of engagement ("rules-of-engagement-ment RoE). In particular, multiple interception drones 6 can be simultaneously controlled with this control device, wherein the number of Intercept drones is basically unlimited. claims 1. A device for controlling a collecting drone (6) comprising: - a device (11) for generating a light beam; - a coding device (13, 18) for coding the light beam generated by said device (11) with the data necessary to control the trajectory of the interceptor drone (6) to a target drone; - A deflection device (15) for the stepwise deflection of the light beam over a given number of subfields (23) of a scanning field (16); - a computer (22); wherein the coding device (13, 18) and the deflection device (15) are mutually coupled with the aid of the computer (22) in order to generate an individual code on each sub-field (23) of the scanning field (16) such that they correspond to each other Subfield (23) generated data consist of at least a first and a second digital indication; and wherein the first indication denotes the subfield (23) in which the intercept drone (6) is located and the second indication designates the subfield (23) into which the intercept drone (6) is to pass, characterized in that the scanning field (16 ) for coding the interception drone (6) in a variable conical solid angle is radiated, which includes the current location of the target drone in the center. 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the deflector (15) generated scanning field (16) is made like a checkerboard from subfields (23), and that on each subfield (23) of the checkerboard scanning field (16) an individual information from the coding (13, 18) can be generated. 3. A device according to claim 1, characterized by a device (12) for expanding the light beam and for adjusting the divergence of the light beam; a modulator (13) for encoding the light beam by a modulation thereof; an optic (14) for adjusting the light beam to the desired cross-sectional area. 4. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the device (11) for generating the light beam contains a laser. 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that said laser consists of a CO2 laser or a neodymium laser or a fiber laser or a diode laser. 6. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the optical system (14) consists of a zoom lens. 7. The device according to claim 3, characterized in that the modulator (13) for modulating the light beam consists of an electro-optical or an acousto-optical crystal. 8. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the deflection device (15) for deflecting the light beam comprises a deflection mirror (15) or a prism, with which the coded light beam gradually from one subfield (23) to the next subfield (23) of the Scanning field (16) can be steered.