EP0010480B1 - Manually assisted marking system for tracking a tarqet - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an assisted manual designation system for a device of the optical, or optronic radar tele-pointer type.

It is known that the operation of automatic radar or optronic tracking devices requires that the objective be brought beforehand into the field of these devices of the pager type among others. This operation, called designation of the objective, is carried out by an operator, or serving, by means of an optical post comprising a telescopic sight mounted on a turret and having two degrees of freedom, in elevation and in bearing for example, compared to a reference platform.

This platform is itself mobile or not depending on whether the optical station is located on land or on board a ship.

• - le servant oriente la lunette de visée dans la direction de l'objectif à désigner ; lorsque celui-ci est dans la ligne de mire du dispositif de visée, le servant envoie un signal dit « bien-pointé au dispositif de poursuite automatique qui prend alors en charge la poursuite proprement dite.

The operating mode is then as follows:

• - the servant directs the telescopic sight in the direction of the objective to be designated; when the latter is in the line of sight of the aiming device, the servant sends a so-called “well-aimed” signal to the automatic tracking device which then takes over the pursuit itself.

• - les systèmes passifs où la force physique du servant lui permet de déplacer la tourelle du télé-pointeur pour amener la cible dans la ligne de mire ;
• - les systèmes actifs où un moteur fournit l'énergie nécessaire au déplacement de la tourelle, le servant ne faisant que commander ce moteur.

Target designation systems can be classified into two categories:

• - passive systems where the physical strength of the servant allows him to move the turret of the tele-pointer to bring the target into line of sight;
• - active systems where a motor provides the energy necessary to move the turret, serving it only controlling this motor.

In an example of a passive system of the prior art shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1, the servant moves on a platform 1, by his own means while keeping himself to a handrail 3 fixed on a seat 2. This seat is secured to the platform 1.

The mobility of a telescopic sight 5 is ensured in bearing about an azimuth axis AZ by a rotating part 4 interposed between this telescope 5 and the seat 2, and in elevation by the articulation 7 between the parts 4 and 5 The operator whose eye is represented at 6 in line with the line of sight 8 shown in dotted lines, holds the handrail 3 with one hand and with the other directs the turret, formed by the parts 4 and 5, by means for example of a drive handle not shown in the figure.

This type of system has a number of shortcomings common to all passive designation systems.

On the one hand the telescopic sight because of its articulation along the axes site, deposit and due to mechanical friction has no inertial stability.

On the other hand we see that for another position 105 of this telescopic sight, the servant's eye must move to come to 106 on the new line of sight 108. This displacement, as well as those required by the variation in field of the turret, implies for the servant a gymnastics prejudicial to the effectiveness of the aiming. Only a position of the servant's eye on the axis of rotation in elevation would allow relative immobility, but this scenario is difficult to achieve, due to the necessary mechanical joints, and in any event would increase by as much the aforementioned defect of the lack of inertial stability.

Another defect in passive systems is linked to the very fact of manual training: the operator who is not necessarily in good conditions, for example on a boat subject to roll and pitch, risks poorly coordinating his movements; in particular the fact of actuating the signal of well-aimed can make him lose the right sight, at the very moment when it must be carried out perfectly.

Active designation systems have been developed to overcome these shortcomings.

In an exemplary embodiment of the prior art, an active designation system is such that the servant is driven by a part of the mobile tele-pointer in bearing, observes the objective on a television screen whose camera is directed according to the line of sight and has field and site speed controls actuating motors which drive the turret of the tele-pointer.

In another embodiment of an active system, the servant is stationary, observes a large portion of space by means of a wide-field television monitor and controls the turret of the tele-pointer by means of a desk.

French patent 2,197,458 relating to a laser sight and computer for an anti-aircraft gun fire control device, relates to an active device as defined above. The servant installed in a seat secured to the gun platform which he must maneuver has at his disposal a control unit containing a viewfinder-laser-calculator assembly. The viewfinder includes a relatively complex optics which allows the servant to visually acquire an objective using a manual control, a joystick transmitting pivot orders in azimuth and site to a mirror belonging to the viewfinder. Therefore the viewfinder is fixed relative to the servant, himself installed in a fixed position on the platform. There is not, in this organization to take into account the movements that the servant is brought to make on his platform no more than the problem of its maintenance during these movements.

It will also be noted that in all cases of active systems of the prior art, there are automatic correction loops in bearing speed and site of the telepointer turret which allow inertial stability. Depending on whether the tele-pointer is on land or on board a ship, the speed sensors are generat these tachometers or gyros in order to compensate for the movements of roll, pitch in the case of the ship.

By cons it is always the servant who controls the position of the turret. From the automation point of view, we are led to consider a position adjustment loop controlled by the servant who appreciates the aiming error acts on the controls so as to reduce it. Thus, such an adjustment loop is a loop comprising the servant in its transfer in open loop. An electromechanical loop on the other hand is a control loop produced by electromechanical means.

However, the active designation systems of the prior art, which use, for example, television screens and control panels that are mechanically independent of the turret, require extensive learning for the servant because the different movements that the latter must perform are not not reflexes.

The importance of this reflex aspect of the servant's movements is great because the designation of the target must be rapid, this target being for example an airplane; in these conditions the use of a sequence of learned gestures represents a loss of efficiency compared to the use of natural reflex movements.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an active system for designating a target by visual acquisition of the target by the servant through optical sighting means, a system benefiting from the inertial stability proper to active systems and taking account of all the movements that the servant is led to make by moving on his own on the platform of the system.

According to the invention, a system for manual designation assisted by a target for a tele-pointer operated by a servant, said tele-pointer being movable in azimuth around an axis of rotation perpendicular to a base, fixed to a platform. form, said system comprising optical sighting means and a site sensor carried by the tele-pointer and movable relative to the latter about an axis of rotation in site, manual control means, sighting means allowing the visual acquisition of the target, so-called well-aimed control means or automatic tracking of the target after its visual acquisition and means for holding the telepointer, is characterized in that the holding means consist of a handle fixed to the tele-pointer and on which the well-pointed button is placed, the manual control means of the sighting means being constituted by a handle secured to the sighting means and of axis parallel to the screw axis ée, the servant moving on the platform by his own means.

• la figure 1, le schéma d'un système passif de désignation ;
• la figure 2, un télé-pointeur équipé du sys- . tème de désignation selon l'invention ;
• les figures 3, 4, 5, le schéma bloc d'un tel système avec des détails de certains circuits.

Other advantages and characteristics of the invention will appear in the description which follows, given with the aid of the figures which represent:

• Figure 1, the diagram of a passive designation system;
• Figure 2, a tele-pointer equipped with the sys-. designation label according to the invention;
• Figures 3, 4, 5, the block diagram of such a system with details of certain circuits.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the support 15 of the viewfinder of the optical station allowing the prior designation of the objective and the sensor 14 of the tele-pointer performing the automatic tracking from the moment when one activates the well-aimed signal, are mounted on the same turret 11 and are integral with each other so as to maintain the same line of sight, taking into account the distance from the objective.

This turret 11 is movable in bearing about an axis AZ relative to its base 10, fixed on the reference platform not shown in the figure. The mobility in site of the sensor 14 and of the support 15 takes place around a journal 19 articulated on the turret 11 along a median axis which is the elevation axis EL. Two motors located inside the turret control the rotations in the direction of the turret and in elevation of the sensor 14 and support 15 assembly.

This support 15 carries on its upper part a sight 16 and on its lower part a rod 17. The sight 16 is in the simplest case of the handlebar eyelet type as on a rifle. The rod 17 is fixed in such a way that it is parallel to the line of sight of the viewfinder 16. This rod comprises at its end a control handle 12, of the stiff type, known as “with sensations and with two directions.

It will be recalled that there are two types of control sleeves: “displacement” sleeves and “sensation” sleeves; these have been described in the prior art and are well known to those skilled in the art. It should be remembered, however, that they deliver two voltages proportional to the force exerted on them by an operator, broken down into a system of two rectangular axes known as the privileged axes of the handle. Indeed the effort of the operator produces a small displacement of the handle which slightly deforms a membrane to which it is fixed perpendicularly. These deformations are measured for example by means of strain gauges arranged along the preferred axes of the handle.

The handle 12 is fixed on the rod 17 so that one of its preferred axes is parallel to the axis EL. Its other preferred axis is then parallel to the so-called lateral axis which is a movable axis, linked to the telescopic sight in its rotation around the EL axis and merged with the azimuth axis when the elevation angle is zero , i.e. when the line of sight is horizontal. The handle 12 therefore delivers two signals proportional to the efforts of the servant along the axis EL and the lateral axis.

On the turret 11 is fixed a handle 13 on which there is a switch button 18 for sending the well-aimed signal to the automatic tracking device. The servant, standing on the reference platform, holds the control handle 12 in his right hand, keeps himself at the turret thanks to the handle 13 which he holds with his left hand and follows the target with his eyes in the viewfinder 16. The servant is neither driven in elevation nor in elevation and must therefore follow the movement of the turret 11 around the azimuth axis, as in the system described above, the reflex movement aspect of which is therefore retained. . For the convenience of operation, the handle 13 and the handle 12 are substantially at the same height and the triangle formed by this handle 13, this handle 12 and the viewfinder 16 is not obtusangle.

The handle 13 is located at a suitable distance from the azimuth of the reservoir so that the jolts due to the movements of the servant do not create excessive disturbing torques on the servo in the reservoir.

The well-pointed switch button 18, when pushed, triggers a relay which disconnects the designation system of the turret drive motors 11 and triggers the automatic tracking device. Any action on the control stick 12 then has no effect on the orientation of the sensor 14 of the tele-pointer and of the support 15.

A block diagram of the control of the line of sight in elevation or lateral is shown in FIG. 3. The enslavement in site being structurally similar to that in lateral, the description is limited to only one of the two, for example the first city.

• - la boucle pour laquelle le signal de contre- réaction est immatériel (40) et est constitué de l'appréciation faite par le servant de la position de la cible par rapport à la ligne de visée. Celui-ci appuie avec plus ou moins de force sur le manche 12 pour ramener la ligne sur la cible ;
• - les boucles électromécaniques qui sont internes à la précédente et dont la grandeur de consigne est constituée des tensions issues du manche de commande. Les signaux de contre- réaction de ces boucles 29 sont issus de capteurs de vitesse absolue solidaires de la ligne de visée.

This control has two main loops:

• - The loop for which the feedback signal is immaterial (40) and consists of the assessment made by the servant of the position of the target relative to the line of sight. The latter presses with more or less force on the handle 12 to bring the line back to the target;
• - the electromechanical loops which are internal to the previous one and whose setpoint quantity is made up of the voltages from the control stick. The feedback signals from these loops 29 come from absolute speed sensors secured to the line of sight.

The servant 30, whose action is represented by the dotted line 301 estimates by means of his eye 302, the gap between the target and the line of sight and exerts by means of his hand 303, an effort on the handle 12 which delivers, as we saw above, a polarized signal proportional to the force applied in the up-down direction, aiming to obtain a site movement, without there being any noticeable displacement at the handle 12 relative to its support 17.

This signal passes through an anti-drift device 20 and into a correction block 21 to serve as a setpoint for the second speed loop.

This speed loop is similar to those used in the active designation systems of the prior art; it includes a switch 22, a corrector network 23, an amplifier stage 24 supplying a motor 25 controlling the rotation of the sensor 14 and of the support 15 of the viewfinder 16 around the axis EL. All of these parts 14, 15, 16 in rotation around the barrel-Ion 19 are represented by the load 27 which the motor 25 actuates through a reduction gear 26. The absolute angular speed of this load 27 is picked up by the sensor 28 to be subtracted from the setpoint signal in the adder 22.

It is recalled that the absolute speed is the speed measured with respect to a fixed frame of reference. In the case where the reference platform is fixed, this absolute speed is equal to the speed relating to a reference frame linked to this platform and it suffices to use as a sensor 28 a tachymet generator. stick.

In the case where the platform is mobile, for example on board a ship, it is necessary to use a gyrometer as sensor 28.

The anti-drift device 20 makes it possible to compensate for the slow or false zero drifts presented by the control handle 12, which makes it possible to use a handle whose specifications are not too rigorous and at the same time significantly reduce the cost thereof. .

This anti-drift device 20 shown in FIG. 4 schematically comprises a subtractor 200, a memory 201 and a double switch 202 interposed between them and actuated by the servant.

During the designation phase, the switch is in a “compensation” position, pad C, that is to say that it connects the output of memory 201 with the negative input of subtractor 200, the positive input permanently receives the signals delivered by the stick. This subtractor, during the designation phase, therefore subtracts the value in memory from the signal delivered by the handle.

Outside the designation phase, the switch is in a “memory storage” position M, that is to say that it connects the input of the subtractor 200 to the input of the memory 201.

It is advantageously possible to couple the switch 202 of the device 20 to an electrostatic detector fixed on the handle 12. If one is in a designation phase, the hand servant in contact with the handle and the detector sends a positive signal 203. In outside this phase the detector sends a zero signal. It then suffices to couple this detector to the reversing switch so that a positive signal from the first puts the second in the "compensation" position, while a zero signal puts it in the "storage" position.

The correction block 21 shown in FIG. 5 comprises two circuits in series.

The first circuit is a non-linearity 210 of odd type substantially realizing the function y = k _l x ³ + k ₂ x where x is its input, y its output and k ₁ and k ₂ of the arbitrary constants. This circuit acts as a selective threshold favoring the greatest efforts on the handle 12.

The second circuit of the correction block 21 is a correction network 211 of the proportional-differentiator type for example; it improves the precision and speed of the ergonomic loop by filtering out the oscillations or jolts that the control stick 12 can present. The parameters of this network depend on the mechanical characteristics of the handle.

The servant standing on the platform therefore has an optical station, the control of which is effected by reflex movements, similar to those necessary for the control of the optical station described under the prior art by adding to it the advantages specific to active systems, in particular inertial stability and the absence of physical effort to be provided due to the assisted control.

In addition, the system according to the invention makes it possible to separate the control from the sighting direction which is done with the right hand, from the grab handle as well as from the well-pointed control which is done with the left hand without having need to let go of this grab handle.

Such a designation system is particularly suitable for the radar tele-pointer of an automatic system for tracking an air target.

Claims (8)

1. Manually assisted target designation system for a telepointer which is operated by a person, said telepointer being movable in azimut direction around a rotation axis (AZ) which is perpendicular to a base (10) fixed to a ground plate, said system comprising optical sighting means (15, 16) and an elevation pick up means (14), both supported by the telepointer and movable with respect thereto around an elevation axis (EL), comprising moreover manual means (12) to control the sighting means (15, 16) which allow the visual target acquisition, control means (18) called « well laid or used to activate the automatic target pursuit after its visual acquisition, and comprising maintaining means (13) for the person at the telepointer, characterized by the fact that the maintaining means are constituted by a handle (13), which is fixed to the telepointer and on which the button (18) called « well laid is disposed, the manual means to control the sighting means (15, 16) being constituted by a sleeve (12) which is fixed to the sighting means and which has its axis parallel to the sighting axis, the person displacing himself on the ground plate by his own means.

2. A designation system according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the sighting means comprise a support (15) and a sighting instrument (16) of the eyepiece type.

3. A designation system according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized by the fact that the means which control the sighting means (15, 16) comprise a rigid control sleeve (12) with two movement directions, this sleeve being fixed on a rod (17) which itself is fixed to the lower part of the support (15) of the sighting means, parallelly to the sighting axis of the sighting apparatus (16) which is fixed to the upper part of said support (15).

4. A designation system according to claim 3, characterized by the fact that the control sleeve (12) is movable according to two privileged axes, one of them being parallel to the elevation axis (EL) and the other being parallel to the socalled lateral axis, and delivering polarized electrical signals wich are control signals for the electromechanical velocity loops associated to the system.

5. A designation system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by the fact that the handle (13), the control sleeve (12) and the sighting apparatus are arranged in a triangle, the angles of which are acute and the dimensions of which are such that the person holds the handle (13) with his left hand, the sleeve (12) with his right hand and places his eye on the axis of the sighting apparatus (16).

6. A designation system according to claim 4, characterized by the fact that the signals emitted by the control sleeve (12) are treated by an antidrift device (20) and by a correction block (21) before their use as control signals for the velocity loops.

7. A designation system according to claim 6, characterized by the fact that the antidrift device (20) comprises a subtractor (200), a memory (201) and an interruptor (202) between them, said interruptor being operated by the person according to the presence or absence of an objective designation phase.

8. A designation system according to claim 6, characterized by the fact that the correction block (21) comprises a selective threshold which privileges the signals of great amplitude, and a correction network of the type proportional-inte- g ral-d ifferential.

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