KR102005100B1 - Small Ground Laser Target Designator - Google Patents

Abstract

According to embodiments of the present invention, provided is a small ground laser target designator which can change a movement route of a laser beam to enable the laser beam to be incident upon a target, thereby provide a sighting line to at least one direction. Moreover, a mirror control signal for driving an optical portion to change the movement route of the laser beam in accordance with an analysis result of a target image including the sighting line and the target and a control signal for time division of the laser beam can be generated to irradiate the laser beam in a target direction although the target is not located in the center of the image. In addition, the laser beam having a unique code can be irradiated to a plurality of targets within the image to guide different guided weapons per every target.

Description

Small Ground Laser Target Indicator {Small Ground Laser Target Designator}

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for tracking a target by transmitting a laser beam and acquiring an image.

The contents described in this section merely provide background information on the present embodiment and do not constitute a prior art.

Ground Laser Target Designator (GLTD) or Target Acquisition and Designation Sights (TADS) devices require continuous laser irradiation on the target for guided weapon strikes. Referring to Figure 1 (a), the gimbal is installed so that the laser beam moves along the target. Gimbal is difficult to miniaturize due to its size, weight (eg, 100 kg), and power consumption. GLTD without decontamination is unable to respond to moving targets.

Conventional GLTDs can only respond to one target at a time. Referring to Figure 1 (b), the laser beam is fixed, it is impossible to apply to the moving target. If multiple targets are to be attacked at the same time, the number of target devices is needed.

Korea Patent Publication No. 10-1057303 (2011.08.09.)

Embodiments of the present invention change the path of the laser beam to enter the laser beam to the target to provide a line of sight in one or more directions, and according to the results of analyzing the target image including the line of sight and the target, By generating a mirror control signal for driving the optics to change, the main object of the invention is to irradiate a laser beam in the target direction even if the target is not located in the center of the image.

Embodiments of the present invention have another object of irradiating laser beams having different codes to a plurality of targets in an image by generating a laser control signal that time-divisions the laser beam.

Still other objects of the present invention may be further considered without departing from the following detailed description and effects thereof.

According to an aspect of the present embodiment, an optical unit for irradiating a laser beam and changing the movement path of the laser beam to inject the laser beam into a target to provide a line of sight in at least one direction, by photographing the front line and the target line An image acquisition unit for acquiring a target image including a target and a mirror control signal for driving the optical unit to change a movement path of the laser beam according to a result of analyzing the target image including the aiming line and the target The optical unit provides a compact terrestrial laser target indicator, characterized in that for changing the movement path of the laser beam by the mirror control signal.

According to another aspect of the present embodiment, in the target tracking method using a terrestrial laser target indicator, the laser beam is irradiated and the movement path of the laser beam is changed to inject the laser beam into a target to provide a line of sight in a plurality of directions. In the step of taking a forward image to obtain a target image including the line of sight and the target, the optical unit for changing the movement path of the laser beam according to the result of analyzing the target image including the line of sight and the target Generating a mirror control signal for driving, generating a laser control signal for time-dividing the laser beam according to the number of targets and a laser code, and for the laser beam time-divided by the laser control signal according to the mirror control signal Changing a movement path of the time-divided laser beam Provide a target tracking method.

As described above, according to the embodiments of the present invention, the laser beam is incident on the target by changing the movement path of the laser beam to provide an aiming line in at least one direction, and the target image including the aiming line and the target is analyzed. By generating a mirror control signal for driving the optical unit in order to change the movement path of the laser beam, there is an effect that can irradiate the laser beam in the target direction even if the target is not located in the center of the image.

According to embodiments of the present invention, by generating a laser control signal that time-divisions the laser beam, there is an effect that the laser beam can be irradiated to a plurality of targets in the image.

According to embodiments of the present invention, by generating a plurality of laser control signals having different laser codes, there is an inducible effect so that different laser guided weapons can be selectively hit to a plurality of targets.

Even if the effects are not explicitly mentioned herein, the effects described in the following specification and the tentative effects expected by the technical features of the present invention are treated as described in the specification of the present invention.

1 is a diagram illustrating a conventional terrestrial laser target indicator.
2 and 3 illustrate a miniature ground laser target indicator in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of generating a control signal by a small terrestrial laser target indicator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a diagram illustrating a screen of a small ground laser target indicator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a diagram illustrating the irradiation timing of the time-splitting laser beam in the small terrestrial laser target indicator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart illustrating a target tracking method according to another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention generating and transmitting laser beams having different laser codes.

Hereinafter, in the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that the subject matter of the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted and some embodiments of the present invention will be omitted. It will be described in detail with reference to the exemplary drawings.

In the present specification, the target is an object to which the laser light source is irradiated, and includes any object such as a tank or a helicopter.

Gimbal is a device that rotates the body to position a laser light source on a target. Because gimbal is large in size, weight, and power consumption, it is difficult to miniaturize it. If it is removed, it is impossible to continuously irradiate a laser to a moving target. There is a risk that the operator will also be exposed when the laser beam is exposed to the enemy, since a person must manipulate the device directly to adjust the tripod.

In this embodiment, the size and weight are reduced by miniaturization by applying a small mirror driving device instead of gimbal. The compact mirrors are light and have low inertia effects for fast drive with low torque. The fast motion characteristics allow the laser beam to be irradiated in time-division fashion on multiple targets. The operator does not have to handle the device directly to the moving target and can operate remotely. That is, the survivability of the operator at the time of device attack can be increased.

2 and 3 illustrate a miniature ground laser target indicator. As shown in FIG. 2, the small terrestrial laser target indicator 10 includes an optical unit 100, an image acquisition unit 200, and a control unit 300. The compact terrestrial laser target indicator 10 may omit some of the various components shown by way of example in FIG. 2 or further include other components.

The small terrestrial laser target indicator 10 tracks the target from the camera input image, calculates an angle with the image center from the position of the target, and controls the small mirror in consideration of the target angle. Laser beam irradiation is possible even when the target is not centered in the input image. The laser beam can be irradiated to multiple targets within the input image. Even if the target deviates from the input image, the target's movement path is predicted and continuous laser beam irradiation is possible.

The optical unit 100 includes a laser 110 for irradiating a laser beam, mirrors 120 and 125 for changing a movement path of the laser beam by reflecting the laser beam at a predetermined angle, and a driving unit for moving the mirror according to a mirror control signal. 130 and 135, and a laser irradiation gate (not shown) positioned in the path of the laser beam to provide a line of sight to the target as a template to partially block the laser beam.

The laser 110 refers to a laser light source launching device for distance measurement and laser weapon guidance. The laser performs its operation by means of a laser control signal. The laser control signal includes a time division number and irradiation timing.

The image acquisition unit 200 may be implemented as a camera, and the camera refers to a device for securing a target image, such as an infrared camera and a visible light camera.

The image acquisition unit 200 uses a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a GPS sensor, a distance measurement sensor, or a combination thereof to calculate a position and attitude corresponding to the center of the target image. And may include 210.

The image acquisition unit 200 performs a function of obtaining a target image from a camera. An image refers to an image obtained from a camera (infrared camera, visible light camera, etc.), and a target refers to a portion containing meaningful information in the acquired image. For example, in guided missiles, targets (tanks, helicopters, etc.) to which the guided missiles are tracked are targeted. In surveillance cameras, surveillance targets (intruders, etc.) are targeted.

The mirror includes a first mirror 120 and a second mirror 125, and the driving units 130 and 135 rotate the first mirror 120 and / or the second mirror 125. The laser beam whose movement path is changed as the first mirror 120 and / or the second mirror 125 rotates reaches the viewing angle range of the image acquisition unit 200 and forms one or more aiming lines within a predetermined distance from the target. do. The driver is adjusted by the mirror control signal. Here, the mirror control signal includes a rotation axis and a rotation angle of the mirror.

The control unit 300 extracts a visual feature from the pixel value extracted from the target image, compares the extracted visual feature with reference data about the target, recognizes the object, and tracks the coordinates of the recognized object. It tracks the coordinates of the target frame by frame. A tracking algorithm is used to track one or more targets in the input image. Tracking algorithm refers to an algorithm for tracking a target over an image frame. When the target is tracked, the pixel coordinates of the target can be obtained from the input image.

The controller 300 calculates the position of the target using (i) a relative angle between the reference line and the target through which the center coordinates of the target image pass, and (ii) the distance between the center coordinates of the target image and the center coordinates of the target image. For example, the position is converted using a trigonometric function. The position of the target may be represented by (i) two-dimensional information expressed in polar or rectangular coordinates, or (ii) three-dimensional information having two-dimensional information and depth information. The position information is corrected by referring to the data calculated by the position posture extractor 210.

The control unit 300 mirrors the position corresponding to the target position through a mirror driving algorithm 320 which compares (i) the position of a specific coordinate in the image and (ii) the mirror control signal table matching the rotation axis and rotation angle of the mirror. Extract the control signal.

The controller 300 receives a target position over time to predict a moving path of the target. If the target is in the image, laser light source irradiation is always possible based on the exact target position. If the target is off screen, the predictive path can be used for continuous laser light irradiation.

The control unit 300 predicts the position having the highest probability in the next frame through the path prediction algorithm 340 which analyzes the position of the target extracted from a plurality of consecutive frames and calculates the probability of the target in the next frame. It sets to and generates a mirror control signal corresponding to the prediction position.

The controller 300 generates a laser control signal for time division of the laser beam on the basis of a preset laser division period. The laser adjusts the timing at which the laser beam is irradiated based on the laser control signal. The laser emits pulses at specific intervals to interact with the weapons system and is called a laser code.

The controller 300 generates a control period in consideration of the laser code in order to time-divisionally send a laser light source to one or more targets. Since one laser pulse lasts only tens of ns and is idle or idle for hundreds of ms until the next firing cycle, the firing cycle can be used to simultaneously irradiate the laser light source by firing a laser code on another target.

The controller 300 receives the target position, receives the firing timing, and calculates a signal and timing for driving the small mirror. This allows laser light sources with different codes to be sent to each target location at precise intervals.

The reproduction time of one frame according to the frame rate of the image acquisition unit 200 is set to be greater than N (N is a natural number) times greater than a preset laser division period. The target image acquired during the reproduction time of one frame includes a plurality of aiming lines generated by time division of the laser beam.

The controller 300 schedules the irradiation timing of the time-divided laser beam through the light source control algorithm 330 that determines the irradiation timing so as to satisfy the number of time divisions within the reproduction time range of one frame.

The driving unit performs a function of reflecting the laser light source at a specific angle. Only the laser light source can be sent to a specific point without moving the whole device. By driving a miniature mirror of the size of the laser light source, the influence of inertia can be minimized, allowing the laser light source to be distributed to multiple targets quickly. For example, if two targets are A and B, A-B-A-B- alternates the laser light source. At each target, the laser light source enters exactly as required.

4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the small terrestrial laser target indicator generating a control signal. The control signal is divided into a mirror control signal and a laser control signal.

When the image is input (S10) through the tracking to obtain the coordinates of one or more targets in the image (S20). An angle between the reference line passing through the center of the image and each target is calculated (S30). Extract the location of each target based on the angle (S40). The movement path of each target is predicted over time (S50). The time interval allocated for each target is calculated (S60). The mirror control signal is generated based on the movement path and the time interval of each target (S70). The mirror is driven according to the mirror control signal (S80). By calculating the position of the target to drive a small mirror to send a laser light source having a specific code as a target (S90). Tracking allows the target's position to be updated every frame as the target moves, so a small mirror drive allows continuous irradiation of the laser light source on the moving target.

5 is a diagram illustrating a screen of a small ground laser target indicator.

The compact terrestrial laser target indicator simultaneously tracks the movement paths 553 of the three targets 511, 512, and 513 on the screen 502 of the input image photographing the front 501 and the next movement path 554 of each target. Predict. The laser beam passing through the laser irradiation gate is positioned near the target, and a plurality of aiming points 531, 532, and 533 are displayed on the screen 502 of the input image. Positions and postures corresponding to the center 503 of the input image are obtained through the position posture extractor. The position of the target may be calculated by combining with the center pixel coordinates of each target calculated by the controller. The path of the target's movement can be predicted and the laser light source can be continuously irradiated to the expected position even if the target is off the image.

6 is a diagram illustrating the irradiation timing of the time-splitting laser beam in the small terrestrial laser target indicator. For example, when firing laser pulses consistently at 50 ms intervals on target A, firing about 20 ns of laser pulses leaves 49.08 ms of time until the next pulse firing. The laser pulses against target B at the waiting time. The small terrestrial laser target indicator can be operated as an induction device because laser pulses are continuously incident at 50 ms intervals for each target by timely performing laser irradiation.

Although components included in the small terrestrial laser target indicator are shown separately in FIGS. 2 and 3, the plurality of components may be combined with each other and implemented as at least one module. The components are connected to the communication path connecting the software module or the hardware module inside the device and operate organically with each other. These components communicate using one or more communication buses or signal lines.

The small terrestrial laser target indicator may be implemented in logic circuitry by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof, or may be implemented using a general purpose or special purpose computer. The device may be implemented using a hardwired device, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or the like. In addition, the device may be implemented as a System on Chip (SoC) including one or more processors and controllers.

The compact terrestrial laser target indicator may be mounted in software, hardware, or a combination thereof in a computing device equipped with hardware elements. The computing device includes various or all communication devices such as a communication modem for performing communication with various devices or wired and wireless communication networks, a memory for storing data for executing a program, a microprocessor for executing and operating a program, and the like. It can mean a device.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a target tracking method according to another embodiment of the present invention. The pattern input method may be performed by the small terrestrial laser target indicator, and detailed descriptions of the operations performed by the small terrestrial laser target indicator will be omitted.

In step S710, the small terrestrial laser target indicator irradiates a laser beam and changes the movement path of the laser beam to inject the laser beam into a target to provide a line of sight in a plurality of directions.

In step S720, the miniature ground laser target indicator photographs the front to obtain a target image including the line of sight and the target.

In operation S730, the miniature ground laser target indicator generates a mirror control signal for driving the optical unit to change the moving path of the laser beam according to a result of analyzing the target image including the line of sight and the target, and time-divisions the laser beam. Generate a control signal.

In step S740, the small terrestrial laser target indicator changes the movement path of the time-divided laser beam according to the mirror control signal with respect to the laser beam time-divided by the laser control signal.

The mirror control signal includes a rotation axis and a rotation angle of the mirror. Generating the mirror control signal corresponds to a position of the target through a mirror driving algorithm that compares (i) the position of a particular coordinate in the image and (ii) the mirror control signal table that matches the rotation axis and rotation angle of the mirror. Extract the mirror control signal.

The laser control signal includes a time division number and irradiation timing. Generating the laser control signal schedules the irradiation timing of the time-divided laser beam through a light source control algorithm that determines the irradiation timing to satisfy the number of time divisions within the reproduction time range of one frame.

According to embodiments of the present invention, even if the target is not located in the center of the image, the laser beam can be irradiated in the direction of the target, and a plurality of targets in the image can be irradiated with a laser beam having different codes.

8 is a diagram illustrating embodiments of the present invention to generate and transmit a laser beam having a different laser code. Each guided weapon identifies a laser code and sets a matching target as a collision target among a plurality of targets. The laser beam includes a laser code that can be identified by the guided weapon, and the laser control signal generates a different laser code according to the laser splitting period.

In FIGS. 4 and 7, the processes are sequentially executed, but these are merely described by way of example, and those skilled in the art will appreciate the techniques described in FIGS. 4 and 7 without departing from the essential characteristics of the embodiments of the present invention. Various modifications and variations may be applicable to changing the order described, or to executing one or more processes in parallel or adding other processes.

The operations according to the embodiments may be implemented in the form of program instructions that may be executed by various computer means and may be recorded in a computer readable medium. Computer-readable media refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Computer-readable media can include program instructions, data files, data structures, or a combination thereof. For example, there may be a magnetic medium, an optical recording medium, a memory, and the like. The computer program may be distributed over networked computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present embodiment may be easily inferred by programmers in the art to which the present embodiment belongs.

The present embodiments are for describing the technical idea of the present embodiment, and the scope of the technical idea of the present embodiment is not limited by these embodiments. The scope of protection of the present embodiment should be interpreted by the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope equivalent thereto should be construed as being included in the scope of the present embodiment.

10: handheld surface laser target indicator
100: optical unit
200: image acquisition unit
300: control unit

Claims (15)

An optical unit for irradiating a laser beam and changing a moving path of the laser beam to inject the laser beam into a target to provide an aiming line in at least one direction;
An image acquisition unit for photographing the front to obtain a target image including the aiming line and the target; And
And a controller configured to generate a mirror control signal for driving the optical unit to change a movement path of the laser beam according to a result of analyzing the target image including the aiming line and the target.
The optical unit changes the movement path of the laser beam by the mirror control signal,
The optical unit includes a laser for irradiating the laser beam, a mirror for changing the movement path of the laser beam by reflecting the laser beam at a predetermined angle, a driving unit for moving the mirror according to the mirror control signal, and the laser beam A partially blocking form including a laser irradiation gate positioned in the path of the laser beam to provide a line of sight to the target,
The mirror includes a first mirror and a second mirror, the driving unit rotates the first mirror and the second mirror,
The laser beam, the movement path of which is changed as the first mirror and the second mirror are rotated, reaches within the viewing angle range of the image acquisition unit, and forms the at least one aiming line within a predetermined distance from the target. Ground laser target indicator. delete The method of claim 1,
The image acquisition unit may include a position posture extractor configured to calculate a position and a posture corresponding to the center of the target image using a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a GPS sensor, a distance measuring sensor, or a combination thereof. Handheld ground laser target indicator, characterized in that. delete The method of claim 1,
The controller extracts a visual feature from a pixel value extracted from the target image, compares the extracted visual feature with reference data about the target, recognizes an object, and uses a target tracking algorithm to track coordinates of the recognized object. Miniature ground laser target indicator, characterized by tracking the coordinates of the target every frame. The method of claim 5,
The controller calculates the position of the target using (i) a reference line through which the center coordinate of the target image passes and a relative angle between the target and (ii) a distance between the center coordinate of the target image and the center coordinate of the target, ,
The position of the target is a compact terrestrial laser target indicator, characterized in that it is represented by (i) two-dimensional information expressed in polar coordinates or rectangular coordinates or (ii) three-dimensional information having the two-dimensional information and depth information. The method of claim 6,
The mirror control signal includes a rotation axis and a rotation angle of the mirror,
The control unit receives a mirror control signal corresponding to the position of the target through a mirror driving algorithm that compares (i) the position of a specific coordinate in the image and (ii) the mirror control signal table matching the rotation axis and rotation angle of the mirror. Handheld surface laser target indicator, characterized in that the extraction. The method of claim 7, wherein
The controller sets the position having the highest probability as the predicted position in the next frame through a path prediction algorithm that analyzes the position of the target extracted from a plurality of consecutive frames and calculates a probability that the target exists in the next frame. And generate a mirror control signal corresponding to the predicted position. The method of claim 1,
The control unit generates a laser control signal for time division of the laser beam on the basis of a preset laser division period,
And the laser adjusts the timing at which the laser beam is irradiated based on the laser control signal. The method of claim 9,
And said laser beam comprises a laser code that is capable of identifying a guided weapon, and said laser control signal generates a different laser code in accordance with said laser dividing period. The method of claim 9,
The reproduction time of one frame according to the frame rate of the image acquisition unit is set to be greater than N (N is a natural number) times greater than the preset laser division period.
And the target image acquired during the reproduction time of the one frame includes a plurality of aiming lines generated by time division of the laser beam. The method of claim 11,
The laser control signal includes a time division number and irradiation timing,
The control unit schedules the irradiation timing of the time-divided laser beam through a light source control algorithm that determines the irradiation timing to satisfy the time division number within a reproduction time range of the one frame. . In the target tracking method by the ground laser target indicator,
Irradiating a laser beam and changing a moving path of the laser beam to inject the laser beam into a target to provide a line of sight in a plurality of directions;
Photographing the front to obtain a target image including the line of sight and the target;
Generating a mirror control signal for driving an optical unit to change a movement path of the laser beam according to a result of analyzing the target image including the line of sight and the target, and generating a laser control signal for time-dividing the laser beam step; And
Changing a movement path of the time-divided laser beam according to the mirror control signal with respect to the laser beam time-divided by the laser control signal
Target tracking method comprising a. The method of claim 13,
The mirror control signal includes a rotation axis and a rotation angle of the mirror,
The generating of the mirror control signal may include: (i) a position of the specific coordinate in the image and (ii) a mirror driving algorithm for comparing the mirror control signal table matching the rotation axis and the rotation angle of the mirror to the position of the target. Extracting a corresponding mirror control signal. The method of claim 13,
The laser control signal includes a time division number and irradiation timing,
The generating of the laser control signal may include scheduling the irradiation timing of the time-divided laser beam through a light source control algorithm that determines the irradiation timing to satisfy the time division number within a reproduction time range of one frame. Target tracking method.

Images