1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for disrupting a suspect object. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for investigating, targeting, disabling and/or otherwise disrupting a suspect object, such as an explosive device.
2. Background of the Related Art
Suspect objects are items that potentially pose a significant threat to persons and/or property. A suspect object may be, for example, a luggage, box or other container that is suspected of containing dangerous materials (e.g., explosives, volatile materials, toxins, etc.) that may cause injury and/or damage. Techniques have been developed to detect suspect objects as described, for example, in US Patent Application No. 2005/0025280. It may be preferable to investigate the contents of the suspect object without touching the object. Techniques have been developed to image contents of an object as described, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos./Application Nos. 6,359,961, 6,281,507, and 2008/0112541.
In cases where the suspect object is determined to pose a threat, it is often necessary to de-activate, neutralize or otherwise disable the suspect object or one or more of its components to render the suspect object inoperable. Attempts have been made to disable explosive devices by deploying projectiles or substances into explosive devices (as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,046,055, 4,169,403, 4,779,511, 4,957,027, 5,210,368, 5,515,767, 6,298,763, 6,644,166, and 7,228,778), or by disabling electrical components within the explosive device (as described in U.S. Pat. No./Application Nos. 4,062,112, 2009/0189091, or 2008/0254738).
Despite the development of techniques for identifying or disabling suspect objects, there remains a need for advanced techniques for effectively disrupting suspect objects. It may be desirable to investigate the suspect object, preferably without contacting the suspect object. Such investigation preferably provides a highly accurate view of the contents of the suspect object. It may be further desirable to disable the suspect object, preferably from a distance. Such disablement is preferably accurately aimed at key components of the suspect object. Preferably, such capabilities involve one or more of the following, among others: compact operability, portability, easy assembly and use, transportability, accuracy, operation in difficult conditions, simple operation, disruption of select components (preferably without affecting other components), preventing suspect object and/or component operation, visually inspecting the explosive device and/or its contents, manual and/or automatic operation, operability about obstacles, etc.
So that the features and advantages of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof that are illustrated in the appended drawings. These drawings are used to illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention, and are not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. The figures are not necessarily to scale and certain features and certain views of the figures may be shown exaggerated in scale or in schematic in the interest of clarity and conciseness.
Presently preferred embodiments of the invention are shown in the above-identified figures and described in detail below.
The investigation unit 102 includes a source 108 and a screen 110 for creating an image of the suspect object 101. The source 108 may be a conventional radiation source capable of emitting sufficient radiation through the suspect object 101 to generate an image on screen 110, as will be described further herein. The investigation unit 102 is also provided with a fixture (or marker) 112 positionable about the screen 110. The fixture 112 serves as a physical marker for locating the investigation unit 102 in 3D space, as will be described further herein.
The weapon unit 104 has a weapon 114, camera 116, and a discharge 120 for disabling at least one component of the suspect object 101. The weapon 114 is supported on a firing stand (or tripod) 122, and is positionable for firing at the suspect object 101. The camera 116 is mounted on the weapon 114 via a camera mount 124. The camera 116 is preferably positioned to view the fixture 112 of the investigation unit 102 for alignment therewith. Preferably, the fixture 112 is centered in the camera's field of view when the weapon 114 is pointed toward the suspect object 101. The alignment of the camera 116 may be used to aim the weapon 114 such that the discharge 120 may be deployed to a disruption point D, as will be described further herein.
The disruption system 100a of
The disruption system 100b of
One or more stands, extenders, mounts, relay units or other devices may be provided to position various components of the disruption system 100a,b about the suspect object 101. Preferably, the devices are adjustable to permit selective positioning of the components. One or more disruption systems 100a,b of may be provided about one or more suspect objects 101. Preferably, the components of the disruption system 100a,b are portable, adjustable and movable to provide various configurations as needed to conform to a given situation, and to effectively disrupt the suspect object 101. As seen in
Referring still to
Data received from the investigation unit 102, weapon unit 104 and/or other sources (e.g., historical data, user inputs, etc.) may be stored in database 136. The processor 138 may use the data to generate images, perform calculations, generate reports, provide commands, etc.
The processor 138 includes an investigation tool 142, a targeting tool 144 and an analysis tool 146. The investigation tool 142 may provide images of the suspect object 101 and its contents, and the targeting tool 144 may aim the weapon unit 104 at the disruption point D of the suspect object 101. The analysis tool 146 may be used alone or with the investigation tool 142 and/or the targeting tool 144 to assist in performing various operations, such as performing calculations, generating reports, generating commands and/or providing feedback, as will be described more fully herein. Commands generated by the processor 138 may be used to activate controller(s) 140 to operate the disruption system, as will be described further herein.
The screen 110 includes a film 250, an x-ray transparent face plate 252, screen markets M, and a screen stand 254. Radiation from the source 108 passes through the protective x-ray transparent face plate 252 and onto the film 250 to create an image thereon. Screen markers M, such as tungsten dots, are embedded in the face plate 252 such that they are visible in the image. One or more screen markers M may be positioned about the screen 110 to assist in measuring, locating and/or otherwise identifying features of the image. Screen markers M may be placed at known positions on face plate 252 to enable a determination of the location of the source 108.
The face plate 252 and film 250 may be supported on screen stand 254. The screen stand 254 may have a fixture mount 256 for adjustably supporting the fixture 112 thereon. The fixture 112 is preferably adjustably positionable on the screen 110 via fixture mount 256. The fixture 112 may be a three dimensional device used to assist with the targeting of the weapon 114. As shown, the fixture 112 has three faces to enable tracking at shallower angles between the camera 116 and fixture 112 than may not be possible with a planar configuration. The fixture 112 is preferably provided with multiple panels with markings thereon to facilitate visual positioning, and a geometric design having corners on the panels at different depths to enhance tracking accuracy.
A light 258, such as a chem-light, may be provided to illuminate the fixture 112 in no or low light conditions. The light 258 may be inserted into fixture 112 to illuminate the visual pattern of the fixture. One or more lights may be positioned about, for example, one or more fixtures 112 of the disruption system 100a,b as desired.
The investigation unit 102 preferably has known geometries about an image coordinate system I centered at position P0 at a fixed point on screen 110. The position Ps of the first source 108, Ps′ of the second source 108,′ and Pf of the fixture 112 are known. The position Pf is at a known offset Of from the screen 110. A first vector Vs is defined from the first source 108, through the object 101 and to a pixel location on the screen 110. A second vector Vs′ is defined from the second source 108′, through the object 101 and to a pixel location on the screen 110. The geometry of the configuration may be used to determine positions of the components of the suspect object 101 using conventional stereo triangulation calculations.
As shown in FIGS. 2B1-2B3, images 260a1-3, b1-3 generated from the investigation unit 102 may be displayed on display 262 of processor 138 (
The markers M on face plate 252 are detected by the investigation unit 102 and identified on the images 260a1, b1 as shown in FIG. 2B1. The location of the markers M, as well as the other geometry of the investigation unit 102 as described with respect to
Referring back to
The investigation tool 142 may be used to compute the 3D locations of the source 108 and other components relative to the origin P0. These 3D locations may then be related to the position of the fixture 112. The analysis tool 146 may be used to perform stereo triangulation or other calculations alone or in combination with the investigation tool 142. The investigation tool 142 may be used in conjunction with the analysis tool 146 to define one or more disruption points D of the suspect object 101.
FIGS. 3B1 and 3B2 show detailed views of portions of the weapon 114. The weapon 114 may be a conventional weapon, such as a PAN (
The firing shaft 364 may be hollow for deploying the discharge 120 therefrom. The discharge 120 may be a conventional projectile deployable by the weapon 114 into the suspect object 101. In such cases, the weapon 114 may be a gun, pressurized tube or other mechanism capable of deploying the discharge 120 into the suspect object. Alternatively, the discharge 120 may be, for example, an electrical signal emitted by the weapon into the suspect object 101 for disabling the electrical activation thereof.
As shown in
The camera 116 may be a conventional camera capable of capturing images of the fixture 112. The camera 116 is preferably positionable within line of sight of fixture 112. The camera 116 may be used to track well-defined features of the fixture 112 (e.g., squares on fixture have known patterns and spacing), and compute camera 116 position relative to those features. The camera 116 preferably is used to estimate a position and orientation of the weapon unit 104 relative to the fixture 112. The weapon unit 104 has a coordinate system W that may be related to the coordinate system I of the investigation unit 102.
The geometry of the weapon unit 104 may be determined from the known positions Pc of the camera 116, Fw of the weapon 114 and offset Oc of the camera 116. This information may be used to locate the weapon 114 in three dimensional space, and to aim the weapon 114 at the disruption point D on the suspect object. Vector Vc may be defined between the camera 116 position Pc and the fixture 112 position Pf. Based on the known geometry of the weapon unit 104, the weapon vector Vw may be defined between the weapon 114 and the disruption point D.
The weapon 114 may be aligned to the vector Vw so that the discharge 120 may be aimed to hit the disruption point D. Once aligned, the weapon 114 may be activated to deploy the discharge 120. Preferably, weapon 114 is aligned sufficiently to deploy the discharge 120 into the suspect object 101 at the discharge point D to disable the operation thereof. The weapon 114 may be re-aligned to one or more disruption points D.
Referring back to
The target tool 144 is linked to camera 116 of the weapon unit 104, and calculates the 3D position (position and orientation) of the fixture 112. Feature locations are calculated with respect to the fixture. The offset from the camera 116 to the weapon 114 is known. Therefore, the position of features relative to the weapon 114 may also be determined. Since the 3D position of the weapon 114 relative to the disruption point D are known (and updated in real time), the targeting tool 144 may determine the adjustments that must be made in order to aim the weapon 114 at the disruption point D. The analysis tool 146 may be used to perform stereo triangulation or other calculations alone or in combination with the targeting tool 144.
Controller(s) 140 of the targeting unit 106 may be linked to the investigation unit 102 and the targeting unit 106 for selective activation thereof. The controller 140 may provide, for example, real-time adjustment of the fixture 112, camera 116, weapon 114 and/or other components as desired. Optionally, some or all commands from the targeting unit 106 (or other sources) may be automatically generated for automatic adjustment, and/or manual adjustments may be made by operators receiving instructions from the controller 140. The controller 140 may be activated based on the outputs generated by the investigation tool 142, targeting tool 144 and/or analysis tool 146. For example, the fixture mount 256 (
The targeting unit 106 may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Embodiments may take the form of a computer program embodied in any medium having computer usable program code embodied in the medium. The embodiments may be provided as a computer program product, or software, that may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or other electronic device(s)) to perform a process.
A machine readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form (such as, software, processing application) readable by a machine (such as a computer). The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., floppy diskette); optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium; read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; or other types of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. Embodiments may further be embodied in an electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signal (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), or wireline, wireless, or other communications medium. Further, it should be appreciated that the embodiments may take the form of hand calculations, and/or operator comparisons. To this end, the operator and/or engineer(s) may receive, manipulate, catalog and store the data from the systems, tools and/or units in order to perform tasks depicted in the disruption systems described herein.
The method may also involve defining a position of the suspect object 101 relative to an image coordinate axis I, defining a position of the weapon 114 relative to a weapon coordinate axis W, and linking the position of the weapon 114 to the position of the suspect object 101 by relating the weapon coordinate axis W to the image coordinate axis I.
The method 400 may further involve processing data concerning the disruption system, processing data from the investigation and/or weapon units, analyzing data from the investigation and/or weapon units, performing calibrations, controlling the investigation and/or weapon units, and/or selectively adjusting a position of the investigation and/or weapon units. The steps may be performed in any order and repeated as desired.
It will be understood from the foregoing description that various modifications and changes may be made in the preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention without departing from its true spirit. For example, the disruption system described herein may have one or more components of the investigation, weapon, and/or target units positionable about one or more suspect objects.
This description is intended for purposes of illustration only and should not be construed in a limiting sense. The scope of this invention should be determined only by the language of the claims that follow. The term “comprising” within the claims is intended to mean “including at least” such that the recited listing of elements in a claim are an open group. “A,” “an” and other singular terms are intended to include the plural forms thereof unless specifically excluded.
This invention was developed under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000 between Sandia Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy. The U.S. Government has certain rights in the invention.
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