Patent Application
20150059564
This disclosure is generally directed to weapon effects planning. More specifically, this disclosure is directed to autonomous weapon effects planning,
Current methods for weaponeering (pairing weapons with targets) and weapon fire control for Close Air Support (CAS) are conducted manually by pilots on armed aircrafts or remotely by pilots, flying armed unmanned aircrafts. This manual process is slow and rarely achieves the desired lethality or collateral effects at target. The lethality effects concern the warhead's capability to damage/destroy the target whereas the collateral effects describe the volume in which the fragments (weapon, target and nearby objects) and pressure caused by the warhead detonation can maim or kill living things and/or damage/destroy objects that are not the intended target. In addition, these tools are not designed for speed or simplified operator workflows. They are used to iterate through series of “what if's” to come up with the best solution, increasing the timeline and making the tool unsuitable for time sensitive targets.
This disclosure provides a system and method for autonomous weapon effects planning.
A method for autonomous weapon effects planning includes receiving the desired lethality and collateral effects information on a target and autonomously selecting at least one weapon and fuze setting from an inventory of weapons based on the received lethality and collateral effects information. The method further includes autonomously; determining which weapon with fuze setting and terminal elevation and heading angles satisfies the desired lethality and collateral effects; shaping weapon trajectory to satisfy weapon maneuverability, terrain clobber avoidance and guidance requirements and planning weapon launch conditions for the one or more autonomously selected weapons. The weapon launch conditions include at least a launch point or a launch corridor.
Certain embodiments may provide various technical advantages depending on the implementation. For example, a technical advantage of some embodiments may include the capability to autonomously and rapidly select a weapon with fuze settings and terminal elevation and heading angles based on lethality and collateral effects information for a target. A technical advantage of other embodiments may include the capability to autonomously and rapidly plan optimized weapon launch conditions for the one or more autonomously selected weapons. Yet another technical advantage may include the capability to autonomously launch autonomously selected weapons according to autonomously planned weapon launch conditions.
Although specific advantages are above, various embodiments may include some, none, or all of the enumerated advantages. Additionally, other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the following figures and description.
For a more complete understanding of this disclosure and its features, reference is now made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In a conventional operation, a Close Air Support (CAS) pilot or ground controller may use rules and software tools to match targets with available weapons. The matching of such targets with weapons is called “weaponeering.” The operator of such a weaponeering process is called a “weaponeer.” The rules are based on knowledge of weapon characteristics and experience with weapons employment. Non-limiting example rules include knowledge about weapon's guidance system, predicted guidance accuracy, predicted terminal velocity, warhead lethality against different targets and warhead fragmentation density and pattern.
For every target, the weaponeer processes through the available weapons in the inventory one by one using a tool. More specifically, within the tool, the weaponeer enters in a target type, a target location, a candidate weapon, fuze settings and weapon launch conditions (launch location, attitude and speed). In response, the tool outputs weapon lethality effects on target. In this process, the weaponeer is required to go through several time-consuming iterations before converging to a best fitting weapon target tie-up.
Once a best weapon to target fit is found, the pilot readies the weapon for launch and requests a display of the weapon launch acceptability region (LAR). The pilot then guides the aircraft towards the target. When the target is within the LAR, the pilot pulls the trigger to launch the weapon. If the weapon needs laser designation aiding, the pilot either uses the onboard sensor to laser designate the target or requests the CAS ground controller to laser designate the target.
Unfortunately, the above-described process is time consuming, relies on human intuition, and does not shape the weapon's trajectory or terminal heading and elevation angles resulting in a large collateral damage uncertainty at target. With the onset of warfare scenarios in which time is of the essence (e.g., urban warfare) and the possibility of human error if a rush manual process is conducted, such conventional techniques become extremely undesirable.
Given such concerns with conventional techniques, certain embodiments disclose a system that greatly reduces the kill chain time line and significantly improves the capability to control the collateral damage at the target. According to certain embodiments, current weaponeering tools (lethality and collateral) and manual weaponeering processes are replaced with a system having rapidly processed, optimization algorithms for weapon selection, terminal weapon attitude and speed selection, and weapon trajectory shaping. Additionally, according to certain embodiments, the system also has rule based algorithms for weapon fuze setting and weapon terminal guidance planning. Moreover, according to certain embodiments, the system provides the weaponeer a graphical display of the selected weapon's effects on target and weapon trajectory. In some embodiments, this provides the weaponeer with enhanced situational awareness (SA) of the results of the autonomous weapons employment. In some embodiments, the weaponeer has the option to accept or reject the results or to scroll through all the weapons, in the inventory, rapidly accessing each weapon's suitability for an upcoming target engagement.
The ground controller 110 has targeting equipment 120 to identify and recognize the target 190, a computer and data-link 130 with software tools configured to: describe the target 190, select lethality effects on the targeted areas 190, select the collateral effects on the target areas 190 (e.g., as may be imparted on keep-out zones 195), and send a targeting message to a netted armed aircraft 140 nearby using any suitable communication technique (e.g., radio or other electromagnetic radiation signaling) as indicated by line 135.
The aircraft 140 has a computer, which hosts the autonomous weapons employment algorithms that consists of three segments namely; the“Weaponeering and Endgame Effects Optimization” box 142, the “Weapon Launch Point and Trajectory Optimization” box 144 and the “Aircraft Auto-Routing” box 146. The Weaponeering and Endgame Effects Optimization 142, selects the best weapon in the inventory that achieves the desired lethality and collateral effects on the target 190. The Weapon Launch Point and Trajectory Optimization 144, optimizes the weapon trajectory and launch point. The Aircraft Auto-Routing 146, dynamically plans a deconflicted aircraft route for weapon delivery.
The aircraft computer also interfaces to the weapon launchers and weapons to initialize and launch weapons autonomously. As described in further details below, the aircraft computer in particular embodiments also transmits data for the CAS ground controller 110 and the pilot to visualize the planned aircraft and weapon routes and warhead lethality and collateral effects on the target area 190—thus providing both the ground controller and pilot oversight of the target engagement. In particular embodiments, the process only proceeds after confirmation by the CAS ground controller 110/pilot after visualization of the planned effects.
The autonomous weapon employment process on the aircraft 140 computer begins by first planning the weapon effects on target and the area around the target, which is performed by the Weaponeering and Endgame Effects Optimization segment. The process selects the best weapon in the inventory and, its desired fuze setting, terminal elevation and heading angles, and terminal weapon speed that meets the lethality and collateral constraints for a target and the area around the target 190 as specified by the CAS ground controller 110. This process is repeated every time a new target engagement request is received from the CAS ground controller 110 or in the case of a moving target, an updated target location is received. This ensures that a new weapon employment solution is computed every time a new target is selected or the collateral area around the target has changed (i.e. in the case of a moving target). The selected weapon and, the desired terminal angles and speed are then sent on to the Weapon Launch Point and Trajectory Optimization 144 for processing.
The Weapon Launch Point and Trajectory Optimization 144 segment shapes the selected weapon's trajectory to accommodate the weapon's aerodynamics and guidance sensors. It ensures that the weapon's sensor acquires target/laser signals (e.g., as shown with lines 125a, 125b, and 125c) to conduct precision guidance. It also designs the weapon's launch conditions (location, heading and speed) to minimize the aircraft's arrival time, maximize the aircraft's standoff range and ensure that the weapon arrives at target with the heading, elevation and speed to meet the weapon effects on target. The desired weapon launch conditions (launch location or corridor, weapon attitude angles and speed) are then sent on to the Aircraft Auto-Routing, 146 for processing.
The Aircraft Auto-Routing 146 segment dynamically plans a deconflicted airspace and survivable aircraft route for weapon delivery. Besides taking into account the desired weapon launch conditions, the aircraft auto-router takes into account the current location of aerial objects in the battle space it receives from any source. It also takes into account the local terrain height and location of obstacles (i.e. high power transmission lines) to avoid aircraft clobber. It also takes into account aircraft 140 survivability by maximizing standoff range from known threat areas. The aircraft 140 route is dynamically re-planned to accommodate changing locations of aerial objects and/or moving targets.
Block 400 is shown as receiving inputs from blocks 210, 220, and 300. At block 210, information is gathered from a ground controller (e.g., CAS controller 110 of
At block 220, information from a database is gathered and supplied to block 400. Such information includes, but is not limited to, inventory weapons performance data and terminal engagement rules.
At block 300, there is a generation of target lethality and damage tables for nearly every conceivable scenario that may be encountered for a given weapon and target. The tables generated by block 300 are ingested by process block 400. Alternatively, output portions of block 300 may become part of block 400. Further details of block 300 are described with reference to
At block 400, for given constraints and inputs provided by block 300, there is an autonomous determination of, among other things, the best weapon or weapons in inventory and required terminal heading and elevation angles and speed that meets the desired lethality and collateral effects (e.g., as may be received by block 210). Fuze settings for such weapons are also autonomously determined. Further details of block 400 are described with reference to
According to particular embodiments, block 400 may provide certain items to block 500 such as, but not limited to, a selected weapon, a terminal heading and elevation angles, a terminal velocity, and terminal heading and elevation angles. At block 500, for given constraints and the input from block 400, there is an autonomous determination of among other things, the optimal weapon launch conditions and trajectory. For example, block 500 may use knowledge of an armed aircraft location, a target location, weapon terminal heading and elevation angles, and speed requirements to formulate a weapon trajectory. Additionally, block 500 in certain embodiments autonomously maximizes a weapon launch range from a target to ensure the aircraft's survivability. Additionally, block 500 may autonomously utilize weapon terminal guidance sensor constraints to shape the weapon trajectory to ensure target/laser signal acquisition and high accuracy terminal guidance. Further details of block 500 are described with reference to
According to particular embodiments, the block 400 additionally yields warhead effects graphics and predicted performance based on a selected weapon whereas the block 500 additionally yields weapon trajectory graphics based on the selected launch conditions and trajectory. With such information, the visualization block 240 can provide a controller on the ground and the pilot an expected result of the combined autonomous blocks 400, 500. With such a visualization check, the controller or pilot can allow the weapon release process to proceed.
The weapons management block 260 receives, for example, the selected weapon or weapons from block 400 and the associated weapon/s trajectory and launch conditions from block 500. Additionally, the weapons management block 260 may receive a confirmation from a controller or pilot that visualized the expected results.
Also shown is a block 250 for aircraft auto routing. The block 250 may receive weapon launch conditions from block 500 and use, among other things, the knowledge of aircraft performance, terrain elevation, obstacle locations, threat locations, and incoming air-tracks to generate a potential ingress corridor that is fed back to block 500. Further details of block 250 are described with reference to
In
To ensure safety and accuracy of the weapon performance tables, certain embodiments of the disclosure use Government certified weaponeering lethality tools—some of which were designed for manual weaponeering—to generate a series of lethality tables for every weapon in the inventory against every possible target. Such varied weapon input numbers and target numbers are respectively labeled as blocks 310a, 310b where the “#” indicates a plurality (e.g, number, n), of each. Each respective weapon number and target number is cross-referenced against varying parameters 320a, 320b. Non-limiting examples of varying parameters for block 320a include varying weapon fuze settings, varying targeting error, varying guidance error, varying weapon terminal heading and elevation angles and varying weapon speed. Non-limiting examples of varying parameters for block 320b include varying targeting error, varying guidance error, varying weapon terminal heading and elevation angles, and varying weapon speed.
The weaponeering lethality estimation tools 330a,330b respectively cross-references inputs from block 320a, 320b and 310a, 310b to yield respective lethality tables 340a and collateral tables 340b. The lethality tables 340a specify weapon lethality effects on a specific target as a function of warhead fuze settings, targeting error, guidance error, weapon terminal heading and elevation angles and weapon terminal speed. Similarly, the collateral damage tables 340b specify for every weapon in the inventory collateral effects as a function of targeting error, guidance error, weapon terminal heading and elevation angles and weapon terminal speed. These lethality and collateral tables 340a, 340b are stored in the aircraft's fire control computer for real-time processing during a target engagement.
According to embodiments of the disclosure, the CAS ground controller (e.g., item 11 of
As shown in
Optimization vectors 420 may additionally be fed into weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430. Non-limiting examples include weapon optimization vectors, fuze settings, terminal heading with respect to target, and terminal speed.
In particular embodiments, upon receiving the CoT message 400, an aircraft's fire control computer may immediately process such information using the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430. In particular embodiments, the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 may operate in real time to quickly generate weaponeering outputs 440. In some embodiments, the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 may generate the weaponeering outputs 440 in less than two seconds after receipt of the constraints from the CoT message 410. In other embodiments, the weaponeering outputs may be generated in more than two seconds.
As referenced above, as part of the selection process, the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 may analyze all available weapons in inventory to determine the optimal one for the given constraints. In particular embodiments, the weaponeering outputs 440 include, but are not limited to, the desired weapon, fuze setting, terminal heading and elevation angles and terminal speed.
Thus, one can see that the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 finds the best weapon, fuze setting, terminal elevation and heading angles and speed that meets the constraints, which may include the target type, predicted targeting error, lethality and collateral effects on target. Any of a variety of techniques and algorithm may be utilized to yield weaponeering output 440 including solving a set of equations, iterative processing, best fit analysis, and brute analysis. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize other problem solving algorithms may be utilized after review of this disclosure.
Unlike conventional manned weapon launch methods where the weapon is launched as soon as the target is in the launch acceptability region (LAR), certain embodiments employ autonomous weapons algorithms that plan a single optimized weapon trajectory and a single weapon launch point (position, attitude and speed) that can easily be achieved by the aircraft.
According to certain embodiments, one of the functions of the block 500 is to optimize the weapon's launch location along with attitude and speed to minimize the aircraft's ingress time to launch the weapon, to maximize the aircraft's standoff range to target, and to ensure that the weapon arrives at the target with the correct attitude and speed in order to ensure the desired lethality and collateral damage at target.
In process 500, a weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 takes and analyzes a variety of inputs to yield a launch point and trajectory output 560. According to particular embodiments, the launch point and trajectory output includes weapon launch conditions and a planned weapon trajectory.
One of the inputs into the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 is the weaponeering output 440 from block 400 of
Another input into the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 is constraints 510 that may be fed from a combination of the aircraft or ground forces. For example, where a CoT message is communicated from ground forces, the location of transmission of the message, target location, target information and laser designation source may be part of the constraints 510. Additionally, the aircraft may supply a current aircraft state vector and wind estimates. Further, weather may be obtained from ground forces or a global information grid (GIG).
Yet another input into the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 is optimization vectors 520. Such optimization vectors may include, but are not limited to weapon launch conditions (position, attitude, velocity) and weapon trajectory (position, attitude, and velocity).
Yet another input into the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 is information on weapon aerodynamics and guidance sensor capability 550 as well as laser designator model information 540. The laser designator model information may include, but is not limited to laser power, angular divergence and weather conditions.
In particular embodiments, the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 shapes the weapons' trajectory to accommodate the weapon's guidance sensor. Accordingly, the algorithm or algorithms in the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 take into account the weapon's aerodynamics and guidance capabilities. If the weapon's guidance uses GPS then the algorithm checks to make sure GPS is available. If the weapon's guidance uses laser guidance, then the algorithm uses prior knowledge of: onboard aircraft laser designation capability, CAS ground controller's laser designation capabilities and the locations of the aircraft, target and CAS ground controller, knowledge of the target's reflectance and weather conditions (i.e. cloud cover and rain) to select the best guidance approach.
The algorithm or algorithms in the weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 also uses knowledge of these capabilities to shape the trajectory to ensure the laser signal is contained in the weapon seeker's field-of-view from acquisition to impact. If the weapon uses electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) or semi-active radar (SAR) seeker guidance then the algorithm or algorithms uses knowledge of these sensor capabilities to shape the trajectory to ensure the target is contained in the weapon seeker's field-of-view from target acquisition to impact. If a preferred attack direction is specified, the algorithm or algorithms use that and the knowledge of the aircraft's current position and heading, the weapon's aerodynamics and guidance capability to shape a trajectory from launch to impact that ensures that all
Also shown in
The tools described herein, for example, the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 and weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 may be carried out on a fire control computer 610 within the aircraft. Although described as “a computer,” the fire control computer 610 may be more than one computer. Information such as that from the lethality and collateral tables 340a, 340b may be on the computer, for example, in suitable memory. Additionally, weapons aerodynamics, guidance, and sensor database may also be located with suitable memory on the fire control compute 610. Each of the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 and weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 may be part of a same or different programs and can be executed by any suitable processor or processors.
The weapon management computer 260 may receive the outputs from the weaponeering and endgame effects optimization tool 430 and weapon launch point and trajectory optimization tool 530 (e.g., weapon guidance/trajectory parameters and selected weapon/terminal heading and elevation angles/speed) and also potentially input from a CAS ground controller 110 or pilot 145 confirming after visualizing the output communicated from weapon effects simulation 240 to display 142 or display 112. Upon receiving such inputs, weapons management computer 260 may initiate its weapon launch process.
General purpose computer 710 may generally be adapted to execute any of the known OS2, UNIX, Mac-OS, Linux, Android and/or Windows Operating Systems or other operating systems. The general purpose computer 710 in this embodiment includes a processor 712, a random access memory (RAM) 714, a read only memory (ROM) 716, a mouse 718, a keyboard 720 and input/output devices such as a printer 724, disk drives 722, a display 726 and a communications link 728. In other embodiments, the general purpose computer 710 may include more, fewer, or other component parts. Embodiments of the present disclosure may include programs that may be stored in the RAM 714, the ROM 716 or the disk drives 722 and may be executed by the processor 712 in order to carry out functions described herein. The communications link 728 may be connected to a computer network or a variety of other communicative platforms including, but not limited to, a public or private data network; a local area network (LAN); a metropolitan area network (MAN); a wide area network (WAN); a wireline or wireless network; a local, regional, or global communication network; an optical network; a satellite network; an enterprise intranet; other suitable communication links; or any combination of the preceding. Disk drives 722 may include a variety of types of storage media such as, for example, floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, CD ROM drives, DVD ROM drives, magnetic tape drives or other suitable storage media. Although this embodiment employs a plurality of disk drives 722, a single disk drive 722 may be used without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
Although
Several embodiments of the disclosure may include logic contained within a medium. In the embodiment of
The logic may also be embedded within any other suitable medium without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, in particular embodiments, certain, some, or all of the logic may be performed automatically without human intervention. It will be understood that well known processes have not been described in detail and have been omitted for brevity. Although specific steps, structures and materials may have been described, the present disclosure may not be limited to these specifics, and others may be substituted as it is well understood by those skilled in the art, and various steps may not necessarily be performed in the sequences shown.
It may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely
While this disclosure has described certain embodiments and generally associated methods, alterations and permutations of these embodiments and methods will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the above description of example embodiments does not define or constrain this disclosure. Other changes, substitutions, and alterations are also possible without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure, as defined by the following claims.
