Vehicular target acquisition and tracking using a generalized hough transform for missile guidance

US7444002B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Raytheon Company · US

Inventors

• Hagos Teku · Tucson, US
• Thomas K. Lo · Temple City, US
• Nikki J. Lawrence · Tucson, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 2, 2004
• Grant date: Oct 28, 2008
• Expiry date: Dec 19, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06V10/753
• WIPO field: Other special machines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A generalized Hough transform is used to acquire and track vehicular targets for missile guidance. This is accomplished by recognizing that most vehicles have silhouettes that may be described as a “rounded rectangle”. The position and shape of such rounded rectangles is described in terms of 5 parameters (xc, yc, a, b, θ) where xc, yc are the center coordinates, a,b are the major and minor axis and Θ is the orientation. The computation of a five dimensional Hough transform on an image including such a target will produce the five parameters that provide the “best fit” rounded rectangle to the target. These parameters are then passed to a missile tracker. This capability can be used to improve track gate handoff from the automatic target recognizer (ATR) to the missile tracker, changing aspect ratios of maneuvering targets, limited lock-on after launch (LOAL), aimpoint designation and fire control system to missile seeker handover.