Optical sensors used in counter-shooter and a variety of other applications are typically mounted to moving platforms (e.g., vehicles, helicopters, etc.). The operation of these vehicles produces local vibrations at the sensor mounting locations. These vibrations add noise to the sensor response signal, which can severely degrade the ability to detect signals of interest, such as the flash from a weapon discharge event, for example.
Aspects and embodiments are directed to methods and apparatus for minimizing the vibration response of optical sensors, such as infrared (IR) sensors, visible-band sensors, ultraviolet (UV) sensors, or near-infrared (NIR) sensors, for example, as would typically be experienced when the sensor is mounted to a vibrating structure (such as a moving vehicle). As discussed in more detail below, aspects and embodiments provide an approach to minimize the effects of local acceleration/vibration on the response of an optical sensor, and thereby improve performance in detecting optical signatures from short-duration events, such as gunshots, for example.
According to one embodiment an optical sensing system comprises an optical sensor configured to produce an unprocessed sensor output signal representative of a response of the optical sensor to at least an optical signature of interest and a local vibration excitation, a reference sensor configured to provide a reference signal responsive to the local vibration excitation, and a controller, including an adaptive digital filter, coupled to the optical sensor and to the reference sensor, and configured to receive the reference signal and to adjust one or more coefficients of the adaptive digital filter to minimize coherence between a residual signal and the reference signal, the residual signal being a difference between the sensor output signal and a filter output signal from the adaptive digital filter.
In one example the reference sensor is an accelerometer and the reference signal is an acceleration signal. The optical sensor and the accelerometer are disposed proximate one another on a movable platform. In one example the accelerometer is coupled to a housing of the optical sensor. The controller can be configured to implement a least-mean-square algorithm to minimize a portion of the sensor output signal that is correlated with the acceleration signal, thereby minimizing the coherence. In one example the controller is further configured to receive the residual signal.
In another example the controller is configured to receive the residual signal and to implement a least-mean-square algorithm to minimize a portion of the sensor output signal that is correlated with the reference signal, thereby minimizing the coherence. According to one example, the optical sensor is at least one of an infrared (IR) sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, and a near-infrared (NIR) sensor.
According to another embodiment an optical sensing system comprises an optical sensor configured to produce an unprocessed sensor output signal representative of a response of the optical sensor to at least an optical event and a local vibration excitation, at least one accelerometer configured to provide an acceleration signal responsive to the local vibration excitation, and a controller, including an adaptive digital filter, coupled to the optical sensor and to the at least one accelerometer, and configured to receive the acceleration signal and to adjust one or more coefficients of the adaptive digital filter to minimize coherence between a residual signal and the acceleration signal, the residual signal being a difference between the sensor output signal and a filter output signal from the adaptive digital filter.
In one example the controller is configured to implement a least-mean-square algorithm to minimize a portion of the sensor output signal that is correlated with the acceleration signal, thereby minimizing the coherence. The controller can be further configured to receive the residual signal. In one example the at least one accelerometer is coupled to a housing of the optical sensor. According to one example, the optical sensor is at least one of an infrared (IR) sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, and a near-infrared (NIR) sensor.
Another embodiment is directed to a method of providing vibration cancelation in an optical sensing system, the method comprising receiving an unprocessed sensor output signal from an optical sensor, the sensor output signal being representative of a response of the optical sensor to at least an optical signature of interest and a local vibration excitation, receiving at an input to an adaptive digital filter a reference signal from a reference sensor, the reference signal being responsive to the local vibration excitation, producing a residual signal by taking a difference between the sensor output signal and a filter output signal from the adaptive digital filter, and adjusting one or more coefficients of the adaptive digital filter to minimize coherence between the residual signal and the reference signal.
In one example the reference sensor is an accelerometer and the reference signal is an acceleration signal. In one example the act of adjusting the coefficients includes applying a least-mean-square algorithm to minimize a portion of the sensor output signal that is correlated with the acceleration signal, thereby minimizing the coherence between the residual signal and the acceleration signal.
Still other aspects, embodiments, and advantages of these exemplary aspects and embodiments are discussed in detail below. Embodiments disclosed herein may be combined with other embodiments in any manner consistent with at least one of the principles disclosed herein, and references to “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “an alternate embodiment,” “various embodiments,” “one embodiment” or the like are not necessarily mutually exclusive and are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described may be included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of such terms herein are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Various aspects of at least one embodiment are discussed below with reference to the accompanying figures, which are not intended to be drawn to scale. The figures are included to provide illustration and a further understanding of the various aspects and embodiments, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, but are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. In the figures, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every figure. In the figures:
Aspects and embodiments are directed to systems and methods for minimizing the vibration response of optical sensors as would be experienced when the sensor is mounted to a vibrating structure, such as a moving vehicle, for example. According to various aspects, there is provided an approach by which to minimize effects of platform self-noise (i.e., from vibration) on the optical sensor output response, and thereby improve performance in detecting optical signatures from events or objects. For example, the noise on the optical sensor output response signal that is caused by vehicle vibration overlaps the frequency range of certain optical signatures of interest, such as the infrared (IR) flash response caused by a weapon discharge, for example. As discussed in more detail below, according to certain embodiments, in order to improve detection of the events of interest, such as a gunshot flash response, adaptive processing is used to minimize the response in the optical sensor signal that is correlated with the local vibration, which can be characterized by an accelerometer placed near the optical sensor, while preserving and improving the desired optical sensing function.
It is to be appreciated that embodiments of the methods and apparatuses discussed herein are not limited in application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The methods and apparatuses are capable of implementation in other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Examples of specific implementations are provided herein for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use herein of “including,” “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms. Any references to front and back, left and right, top and bottom, upper and lower, and vertical and horizontal are intended for convenience of description, not to limit the present systems and methods or their components to any one positional or spatial orientation.
Optical sensors used in a variety of applications, including counter-shooter applications in which the sensor is used to detect a muzzle flash or projectile trajectory, are typically mounted to moving platforms, such as vehicles, helicopters, and the like. As a result, the response of these optical sensors is comprised of both the signal of interest (e.g., the optical flash resulting from a weapon discharge) and various noise contributors, including noise from the changing background due to the vehicle's forward motion, noise correlated with local vibrations, and other noise. In general, at least some of the noise from these various contributors will overlap the frequency range spanned by the optical signal of interest. Accordingly, minimizing the noise floor so as to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the frequency band of interest is desirable to improve the detection capability and accuracy of the optical sensor system. While discussed herein with reference to an IR sensor in particular examples, in certain other embodiments the optical sensor may include a visible-band sensor, an ultraviolet (UV) sensor, a near-infrared sensor (NIR), or any other suitable optical sensor responsive to any portion of the optical electromagnetic spectrum.
When the IR sensor is mounted to a moving vehicle, the motion of the vehicle changes the “field-of-view” of the IR sensor over time, adding additional background noise, and reducing the SNR of the signal of interest. This is shown in
Referring to
The system 200 includes an adaptive controller comprised of a control filter 230 and an implementation of a least-mean-squares (LMS) algorithm module 240. The LMS algorithm module 240 may be implemented in hardware and/or software, according to well-known techniques in the art. As discussed above, the adaptive controller is applied to the local acceleration signal (as characterized by the reference signal, (r), from the reference sensor 220) to match the portion of the optical response signal 215 that is correlated with the reference sensor. The resulting signal (e), labeled 255 in
In particular, according to one embodiment, the reference signal 225 is supplied to the controller 260, as shown in
w(n+1)=w(n)+μ*r(n)*e(n) (1)
In Equation (1), w(n) is a vector of digital coefficients at time step n, representing the state of the control filter 230. Thus, the state of the control filter 230 for the next sample or time step, w(n+1), is based on the state of the filter from the current sample/time point, w(n), an adaptation constant, μ, the reference signal 225, identified as r(n) in Equation (1), and the residual signal, e(n). The LMS algorithm module 240 acts to adjust or adapt the control filter 230 so as to attempt to minimize the component of the residual signal, e, that is correlated with the reference signal 225. As a result, the coherence between these two signals is reduced, and preferably minimized. The adaptation constant, μ, controls the speed at which the filter coefficients converge during the adaptive process. Techniques to balance convergence speed and performance for algorithms corresponding to Equation (1) are well documented in the relevant literature and understood by those skilled in the art.
Thus, aspects and embodiments provide techniques for reducing the vibration sensitivity of an optical sensor. Certain embodiments include the use of one or more accelerometers or other reference sensor(s) 220 to provide a reference signal representative of local vibration excitations. Local adaptive processing is used to reduce or remove the vibration response from the optical sensor response signal 215, as discussed above. The local adaptive processing may advantageously involve the use of minimal processing power and memory (implementation of well-known FIR digital filters and LMS algorithms), and are easily compatible with sensor packaging to provide “smart” optical sensors (with built-in enhanced vibration cancelation).
The function and advantages of these and other embodiments will be more fully understood from the following examples. The examples are intended to be illustrative in nature and are not to be considered as limiting the scope of the systems and methods discussed herein.
Measurements and simulations were performed to demonstrate the use of a local acceleration response and adaptive processing to improve the vibration sensitivity of an optical sensor. Specifically, measurements and simulations were performed using an optical sensor which included an IR sensor 340. An experiment was run to collect IR sensor data both with and without motion of the IR sensor 340.
The spectrum of the IR sensor response 315 is shown in
A digital simulation of the set-up of
Referring again to
When the simulation is run, the output of the adaptive filter 550 converges to match the portion of the IR signal 535 that is correlated with the accelerometer output (i.e., the response at 100 Hz shown in
The simulation results presented in
Thus, the above measurement-based simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of using adaptive filter control to minimize the vibration response of an optical sensor, while preserving the response to the optical excitation of interest (e.g., a gun-shot signature). The simulations showed that using adaptive processing successfully reduced the sensor response to the vibration excitation, as desired, and thereby may provide improved signal-to-noise ratio for improved detection range or confidence. The techniques discussed herein may be extended to use multiple reference signals, and/or other adaptive algorithms, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, which may be advantageous in certain applications.
Having described above several aspects of at least one embodiment, it is to be appreciated that various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure and are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only, and the scope of the invention should be determined from proper construction of the appended claims, and their equivalents.
This application is a continuation of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Serial No. PCT/US2016/057018, titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVED SENSOR VIBRATION CANCELLATION” filed on Oct. 14, 2016, which is a continuation in part of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/885,289, titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVED SENSOR VIBRATION CANCELLATION,” filed Oct. 16, 2015, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application is also a continuation in part of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 14/885,289, titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPROVED SENSOR VIBRATION CANCELLATION,” filed Oct. 16, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/US2016/057018 | Oct 2016 | US |
Child | 15337250 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14885289 | Oct 2015 | US |
Child | PCT/US2016/057018 | US | |
Parent | 14885289 | Oct 2015 | US |
Child | 14885289 | US |