Preemptive countermeasure management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9279643-B2
Application number	US-201213493571-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2012
Priority date	Jun 11, 2012
Publication date	Mar 8, 2016
Grant date	Mar 8, 2016

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are directed to techniques for preemptively managing countermeasures of a vehicle. Prior to identifying an actual threat, at least one countermeasure device may be preemptively oriented to point in a direction most likely to produce a threat. The preemptive orientation may be determined my environmental information and/or vehicular information. Once an actual threat is identified, the countermeasure device may re-orient to point to the identified threat. The preemptive orientation may save time in the re-orientation process thereby providing extra time for countermeasures to be actively deployed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of preemptively positioning at least one countermeasure device of a vehicle, comprising:
(a) computing, using at least one controller, a pre-threat orientation of the at least one countermeasure device based at least on environmental information about the current environment of the vehicle; and
(b) orienting the at least one countermeasure device based on the computed pre-threat orientation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
computing the pre-threat orientation of the at least one countermeasure device occurs prior to identifying a threat; and
the method further comprises repeating acts (a) and (b).

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the environmental information about the current environment of the vehicle, wherein receiving the environmental information comprises:
using at least one sensor of the vehicle to obtain measurements of the current environment; and
determining the environmental information from the measurements.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation comprises computing a center of mass of a potential threat.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation is further based on vehicular information about the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the vehicular information comprises a thermal map describing thermal emissions from the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the at least one countermeasure device comprises a first countermeasure device and a second countermeasure device; and
the vehicular information comprises information about the operation of the first countermeasure device.

8. A vehicle comprising:
at least one countermeasure device;
at least one controller coupled to the countermeasure device, wherein the at least one controller is configured to:
(a) compute a pre-threat orientation of the at least one countermeasure device based at least on environmental information about the current environment of the vehicle; and
(b) orient the at least one countermeasure device based on the computed pre-threat orientation.

9. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
repeat acts (a) and (b).

10. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive the environmental information about the current environment of the vehicle, wherein receiving the environmental information comprises:
using at least one sensor of the vehicle to obtain measurements of the current environment; and
determining the environmental information from the measurements.

11. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation comprises computing a center of mass of a potential threat.

12. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation is further based on vehicular information about the vehicle.

13. The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein the vehicular information comprises a thermal map describing thermal emissions from the vehicle.

14. The vehicle of claim 12 , wherein:
the at least one countermeasure device comprises a first countermeasure device and a second countermeasure device; and
the vehicular information comprises information about the operation of the first countermeasure device.

15. At least one computer readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed on a computer system of a vehicle, perform a method of preemptively positioning countermeasures, the method comprising:
(a) computing a pre-threat orientation of the at least one countermeasure device based at least on environmental information about the current environment of the vehicle; and
(b) orienting the at least one countermeasure device based on the computed pre-threat orientation.

16. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation comprises computing a center of mass of a potential threat.

17. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein computing the pre-threat orientation is further based on vehicular information about the vehicle.

18. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the vehicular information comprises a thermal map describing thermal emissions from the vehicle.

19. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein:
the at least one countermeasure device comprises a first countermeasure device and a second countermeasure device; and
the vehicular information comprises information about the operation of the first countermeasure device.

20. The vehicle of claim 8 , wherein the at least one countermeasure device is a jam head.

Assignees

• Herman Carl R
• Lockheed Corp

Inventors

• Herman Carl R

Classifications

• F41H11/02 Primary

  Anti-aircraft or anti-guided missile {or anti-torpedo} defence installations or systems (cartridges or missiles for producing smoke or for dispensing radar chaff or infrared material F42B5/15, F42B12/48, F42B12/70; {informative reference: details of radar or sonar systems G01S7/00; jamming or electronic countermeasures G01S7/38, G01S7/495, H04K3/00}) · CPC title

• F41G7/007

  Preparatory measures taken before the launching of the guided missiles · CPC title

• F41G7/224

  Deceiving or protecting means (jamming or anti-jamming of radio-wave systems in general G01S7/36, G01S7/38; defense installations in general F41H11/02; chaff dispensers F42B12/70) · CPC title