A high energy laser launch, aim and track system

Abstract

The utility model relates to photoelectric tracking technical field, concretely relates to a high energy laser emission sighting tracking system, and rough tracking subassembly sets up infrared light detection subassembly, can all weather detection target, and infrared light detection subassembly is connected with two axis servo turntable communication, can send the target position of detection to two axis servo turntable to control two axis servo turntable rotation and track positioning to target, and laser illumination subassembly is only used in the detection tracking target of fine tracking subassembly to the target light supplement, so that fine tracking subassembly can all weather detection target and improve the imaging definition of target. The utility model discloses laser illumination subassembly is used for the light supplement to target in fine tracking process, reduces the divergence angle of laser illumination subassembly, makes the vast majority of energy irradiation in the small field of view target area required by fine tracking, reduces the background astigmatism, improves the signal to noise ratio of fine tracking imaging, improves tracking accuracy, avoids light scattering in the background simultaneously, causes energy waste.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This utility model relates to the technical field of high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking systems, and specifically to a high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system. Background Technology

[0002] With the increasing threat posed by "low-altitude, slow-moving, and small-sized" targets such as drones, loitering munitions, and mortar shells, directed-energy interception systems based on high-energy lasers have become an important component of point defense and field defense systems due to their advantages such as fast response speed, low operational cost, and high accuracy. These portable or mobile high-energy laser systems typically integrate multiple functions, including target detection, precision tracking, beam control, and laser emission. Their core mission is to achieve rapid acquisition, stable tracking, and precise destruction of incoming low-altitude, slow-moving, and small targets.

[0003] The core hardware of a high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system typically includes: a two-axis servo turntable to support the entire optoelectronic tracking system and achieve wide-range pointing; a coarse tracking subsystem responsible for initial target acquisition and preliminary tracking within a large field of view; and a fine tracking subsystem responsible for extremely high-precision closed-loop tracking of the target within a narrow field of view to ensure stable illumination by the high-energy laser beam. To ensure tracking performance in complex backgrounds or low-light conditions, the system also needs to be equipped with a laser illumination component to provide active illumination for the target, especially at night, enabling the fine and coarse tracking subsystems to operate in all weather conditions.

[0004] In existing technologies, the laser illumination component of a system typically performs a dual task: firstly, it needs to provide illumination for the fine tracking subsystem. Fine tracking requires the illumination spot to have high contrast and signal-to-noise ratio on the target, and the spot position to be stable. This means that the illumination beam needs to have a small divergence angle and be strictly matched with the fine tracking field of view to ensure that the target is clearly imaged without introducing excessive background noise. Secondly, the same laser illumination component often also needs to provide supplementary illumination for the coarse tracking subsystem. The coarse tracking field of view is larger. To ensure that the target is reliably detected by the coarse tracking sensor before entering the fine tracking field of view, the illumination spot needs to cover the entire coarse tracking field of view, which inevitably requires the illumination beam to have a large divergence angle.

[0005] The current common solution is to use a single laser illumination source and operate it at a large, fixed divergence angle to simultaneously meet the requirements of coarse tracking and wide-area coverage. However, this "one laser, two uses" approach has significant technical drawbacks: 1. Low energy efficiency: The wide beam designed to cover the large field of view for coarse tracking does not irradiate the small field of view target area required for fine tracking with most of its energy, but is lost in the background, resulting in energy waste.

[0006] 2. Excessive system size, weight, and power consumption: In order to generate and project a wide beam with sufficient power, the illumination laser requires higher output power, which leads to a sharp increase in the size, weight, and power consumption of the laser itself and its associated power supply and thermal management system.

[0007] 3. Potential interference with fine tracking: An excessively large illumination divergence angle may increase background scattered light, which may reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of fine tracking imaging and affect tracking accuracy in certain environments.

[0008] 4. Poor concealment: The wide beam is more easily detected by enemy detection equipment, reducing the system's battlefield concealment.

[0009] In summary, the existing laser illumination components, which need to meet both coarse and fine tracking requirements, make it difficult to achieve a balance between power consumption, energy utilization efficiency, and tracking accuracy. This has become a key technical bottleneck restricting the practical performance and widespread deployment of portable high-energy laser systems. Utility Model Content

[0010] 1. The problem to be solved To address the problem that existing laser illumination components, which require both coarse and fine tracking, struggle to achieve a balance between power consumption, energy efficiency, and tracking accuracy, this invention provides a high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system that improves power consumption, energy efficiency, and fine tracking accuracy.

[0011] 2. Technical Solution To solve the above problems, the technical solution adopted by this utility model is as follows: This utility model provides a high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system, including a two-axis servo turntable, and a coarse tracking component, a fine tracking component, a laser illumination component and a laser emission component integrated and installed on the two-axis servo turntable. The two-axis servo turntable can drive the components installed on it to rotate synchronously. The coarse tracking component is set as an infrared light detection component, which can detect targets in all weather conditions; and the infrared light detection component is connected to a two-axis servo turntable, which can send the detected target position to the two-axis servo turntable to control the rotation of the two-axis servo turntable to track and locate the target.

[0012] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the laser illumination component is only used to supplement the target when the fine tracking component detects and tracks the target, so that the fine tracking component can detect the target in all weather conditions and improve the image clarity of the target.

[0013] As a preferred embodiment of this invention, the divergence angle of the laser illumination component is less than 500 urad.

[0014] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the infrared light detection component includes an infrared lens, a camera, and an autofocus module based on image sharpness.

[0015] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the autofocus module has an integrated image processing unit, a focus servo controller, and a motor linked to the lens, which is used to calculate the image grayscale sharpness in real time and drive the lens to the optimal focal plane position to ensure that the target image is always clear.

[0016] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the precision tracking component includes a laser ranging component, and a common aperture mirror group, a fast-reflection mirror, and a precision tracking mirror group arranged in sequence along the optical path.

[0017] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the laser emitting assembly includes a collimating assembly, a beam splitter, a reflector, a fast-reflecting mirror, and a common-aperture mirror group arranged in the laser transmission sequence.

[0018] As a preferred embodiment of this utility model, the reflector and the beam splitter are arranged sequentially along the optical path between the fast reflector and the fine follower, so that the laser emission and visible light detection share the same optical path.

[0019] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the two-axis servo turntable includes an azimuth axis system that can rotate in a horizontal plane and a pitch axis system that can rotate in a vertical plane. The pitch axis system is mounted on the azimuth axis system via a U-shaped frame, and both the pitch axis system and the azimuth axis system can rotate independently.

[0020] 3. Beneficial effects Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of this utility model are as follows: (1) In this utility model, the coarse tracking component is set as an infrared light detection component, which can detect targets in all weather conditions without the need for a laser illumination component to supplement the target. The laser illumination component is dedicated to supplementing the target during fine tracking, eliminating the supplementary lighting function of the laser illumination component in the coarse tracking process. This reduces the divergence angle of the laser illumination component, allowing most of the energy to be irradiated in the small field-of-view target area required for fine tracking, reducing background astigmatism, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of fine tracking imaging, and improving tracking accuracy. At the same time, it avoids light loss in the background, which would cause energy waste. Similarly, due to the reduction in the divergence angle of the laser illumination component, the beam is more concentrated, which improves concealment on the one hand, and reduces the output power on the other hand, thereby reducing the system size, weight and power consumption.

[0021] (2) In this utility model, the infrared light detection component uses the grayscale sharpness of the infrared detection image instead of the distance sensor data for focal length adjustment, which can reduce the system volume and weight, and further reduce the volume and weight of the system.

[0022] (3) In this utility model, the laser emission transmission and visible light detection share the same optical path, and the high-energy laser is directly connected to the optical cabin after passing through the collimator, without passing through the Couder optical path, which can further reduce the system size and weight. Attached Figure Description

[0023] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system of this utility model; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the two-axis servo turntable in this utility model; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the high-energy laser transmission and target imaging path in this utility model.

[0024] Explanation of the labels in the diagram: 1. Two-axis servo turntable; 1-1. Azimuth axis system; 1-2. Pitch axis system; 1-3. U-shaped frame; 2. Precision tracking component; 3. Coarse tracking component; 4. Laser ranging component; 5. Laser lighting components; 6. Bracket. Detailed Implementation

[0025] To further understand the content of this utility model, a detailed description of this utility model will be provided in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0026] The structures, proportions, and sizes illustrated in the accompanying drawings are solely for illustrative purposes and to aid those skilled in the art in understanding and reading the invention. They are not intended to limit the scope of the invention and therefore have no substantial technical significance. Any modifications to the structure, changes in proportions, or adjustments to size, provided they do not affect the effectiveness or purpose of the invention, should still fall within the scope of the technical content disclosed herein. Furthermore, terms such as "upper," "lower," "left," "right," and "middle" used in this specification are merely for clarity and not intended to limit the scope of implementation. Changes or adjustments to their relative relationships, without substantially altering the technical content, should also be considered within the scope of the invention's implementation.

[0027] This utility model provides a high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system, including a two-axis servo turntable 1, and a coarse tracking component 3, a fine tracking component 2, a laser illumination component 5 and a laser emission component integrated and installed on the two-axis servo turntable 1. The two-axis servo turntable 1 can drive the components installed on it to rotate synchronously.

[0028] The specific composition of each component within the system is as follows: The two-axis servo turntable 1 mainly consists of an azimuth axis system 1-1, a pitch axis system 1-2, and a U-shaped frame 1-3. The azimuth axis system 1-1 and the pitch axis are arranged vertically and can rotate independently. Both the azimuth axis system 1-1 and the pitch axis system 1-2 are composed of precision bearing assemblies, drive motors, encoders, limit switches, etc.

[0029] The coarse tracking component 3 is responsible for the initial acquisition and preliminary tracking of targets within a large field of view. The coarse tracking component 3 is configured as an infrared light detection component, capable of detecting targets in all weather conditions without requiring supplemental illumination from the laser illumination component 5. Furthermore, the infrared light detection component is communicatively connected to the two-axis servo turntable 1. The infrared light detection component and the two-axis servo turntable 1 form the coarse tracking subsystem. When the infrared photoelectric detection component detects a target UAV or low-velocity projectile, it performs image recognition algorithms to identify the target's position and sends the position data to the two-axis servo turntable 1. This controls the rotation of the two-axis servo turntable 1 to track and locate the target, keeping it centered on the infrared light detection component.

[0030] The fine tracking component 2 is responsible for performing extremely high-precision closed-loop tracking of the target within a narrow field of view. While the fine tracking component 2 is detecting and tracking the target, the laser illumination component 5 provides supplementary illumination to the target, enabling the fine tracking component 2 to detect the target in all weather conditions and improving the image clarity of the target.

[0031] In summary, the coarse tracking component 3 is configured as an infrared light detection component, enabling all-weather target detection without the need for supplementary illumination from the laser illumination component 5. The laser illumination component 5 is dedicated to supplementary illumination during fine tracking, eliminating its supplementary illumination role in coarse tracking. This reduces the divergence angle of the laser illumination component 5, ensuring that most of the energy is focused on the small field-of-view target area required for fine tracking, reducing background astigmatism, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of fine tracking imaging, and enhancing tracking accuracy. Simultaneously, it avoids light loss in the background, preventing energy waste. Similarly, the reduced divergence angle of the laser illumination component 5 results in a more concentrated beam, improving concealment while relatively reducing output power, thus lowering the system's size, weight, and power consumption.

[0032] Furthermore, the divergence angle of the laser illumination component 5 is less than 500 urad, and can be 450 urad, 300 urad, 200 urad, etc.

[0033] In one embodiment, the infrared light detection component includes an infrared lens, an infrared camera, and an autofocus module based on an image sharpness evaluation function. The autofocus module integrates an image processing unit, a focus servo controller, and a motor linked to the lens. The motor moves the lens via a lead screw and slider principle to calculate image grayscale sharpness in real time and drive the lens to the optimal focal plane position, ensuring that the target image remains sharp. Using infrared image grayscale sharpness instead of range sensor data for focus adjustment can reduce the system's size and weight, further reducing the overall system size and weight.

[0034] Specifically, the focus adjustment of the infrared light detection component includes coarse adjustment and fine adjustment.

[0035] The coarse adjustment steps include: S1. The motor position is reset to zero, returning to the default position to ensure the correctness of the starting position; S2. Move the lens by the motor. Set the step size of each motor rotation to 20 steps. Every 20 steps the motor rotates is considered as the lens being moved once. Every time the lens is moved once, calculate and record the image sharpness. Stop when the lens is moved to half of its maximum position. S3. Confirm the position of the lens when the target imaging clarity is the highest, and move the lens to that position by means of a motor, and then continue to move it for 100 steps to eliminate the effects of calculation delay and calculation error; The fine-tuning steps include: S4. Move the lens using a motor and calculate and record the sharpness. The initial rotation step of the motor is 20. S5. Compare the clarity of the current frame with that of the previous frame; if the clarity is higher than that of the previous frame, continue moving the camera in the original direction; if the clarity is lower than that of the previous frame, move the camera in the opposite direction; the step size of the first reverse camera movement is 10, and the step size of each subsequent camera movement is halved. S6. Through repeated iterations, move the lens to the position with the highest target image clarity; the iteration terminates when the motor step size is less than 2 or the number of iterations is greater than 30.

[0036] In one embodiment, the precision tracking component 2 includes a laser ranging component 4, and a common-aperture mirror group, a fast-reflecting mirror, and a precision tracking mirror group arranged sequentially along the optical path. The common-aperture mirror group includes a primary mirror and a focusing secondary mirror. The laser ranging component 4 is used to detect the distance of the target from the system. The fast-reflecting mirror is rotatable in the horizontal plane. The fast-reflecting mirror is communicatively connected to the precision tracking mirror group, which is capable of identifying the target's position.

[0037] The precise target tracking process is as follows: the laser ranging component 4 measures the distance information between the target and the system and sends it to the focusing secondary mirror. The focusing secondary mirror adjusts its focal length according to the distance information measured by the laser ranging component 4 to ensure that the target is clearly imaged in the precision tracking mirror group. The precision tracking mirror group performs image recognition on the target, identifies the target position, and sends the position data to the fast-reflecting mirror. The fast-reflecting mirror rotates according to the target position data to keep the target in the center position of the precision tracking mirror group.

[0038] In one embodiment, the laser emitting assembly includes a collimating component, a beam splitter, a reflector, a fast reflector, and a common-aperture mirror group arranged sequentially along the laser transmission path. The high-energy laser source QBH connector is collimated by the collimating component, then transmitted through the beam splitter, reflector, and fast reflector to the common-aperture mirror group, finally emitting the high-energy laser. Furthermore, the reflector and beam splitter are arranged sequentially along the optical path between the fast reflector and the precision mirror group, ensuring that laser emission transmission and visible light detection share a common optical path, enabling "seeing is believing" and making high-energy laser strikes more precise.

[0039] In this embodiment, the high-energy laser is directly connected to the optical cabin (i.e., beam splitter, reflector, fast reflector and common aperture mirror group) after passing through the collimation component, without going through the Couder optical path, which can further reduce the size and weight of the system.

[0040] In one embodiment, the high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system also includes a bracket 6 for supporting the two-axis servo turntable 1, enabling the system to be quickly set up and dismantled, thus improving portability.

[0041] The present invention and its embodiments have been described above illustratively. This description is not restrictive, and the figures shown are only one embodiment of the present invention; the actual structure is not limited thereto. Therefore, if those skilled in the art are inspired by this description and design similar structures and embodiments without departing from the inventive spirit of the present invention, such designs should fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system, comprising a two-axis servo turntable (1), and a coarse tracking component (3), a fine tracking component (2), a laser illumination component (5) and a laser emission component integrated on the two-axis servo turntable (1), wherein the two-axis servo turntable (1) can drive the components installed thereon to rotate synchronously; Its features are: The coarse tracking component (3) is set as an infrared light detection component, which can detect targets in all weather conditions; and the infrared light detection component is connected to the two-axis servo turntable (1) for communication, and can send the detected target position to the two-axis servo turntable (1) to control the rotation of the two-axis servo turntable (1) to track and locate the target.

2. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The laser illumination component (5) is used only to provide supplemental illumination to the target when the fine tracking component (2) detects and tracks the target, so that the fine tracking component (2) can detect the target in all weather conditions and improve the image clarity of the target.

3. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The divergence angle of the laser illumination component (5) is less than 500 urad.

4. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The infrared light detection component includes an infrared lens, a camera, and an autofocus module based on image sharpness.

5. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 4, characterized in that: The autofocus module integrates an image processing unit, a focus servo controller, and a motor linked to the lens. It is used to calculate the image grayscale sharpness in real time and drive the lens to the optimal focal plane position to ensure that the target image is always clear.

6. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The precision tracking component (2) includes a laser ranging component (4), as well as a common aperture mirror group, a fast reflection mirror and a precision tracking mirror group arranged in sequence along the optical path.

7. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 6, characterized in that: The laser emitting assembly includes a collimating component, a beam splitter, a reflector, a fast reflector, and a common aperture mirror group arranged in the order of laser transmission.

8. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The reflector and beam splitter are arranged sequentially along the optical path between the fast reflector and the fine follower, so that laser emission and visible light detection share the same optical path.

9. The high-energy laser emission aiming and tracking system according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that: The two-axis servo turntable (1) includes an azimuth axis system (1-1) that can rotate in the horizontal plane and a pitch axis system (1-2) that can rotate in the vertical plane. The pitch axis system (1-2) is mounted on the azimuth axis system (1-1) via a U-shaped frame (1-3), and both the pitch axis system (1-2) and the azimuth axis system (1-1) can rotate independently.

Images