Progress on Target Tracking

& Engagement Demonstration

Presented by Lane Carlson1
M. Tillack1, T. Lorentz1, J. Spalding1, D.
Turnbull1
N. Alexander2, G. Flint2, D. Goodin2, R. Petzoldt2
(1UCSD, 2General Atomics)

HAPL Project Review

PPPL, Princeton, NJ
December 12-13, 2006

Omnipresent Target Engagement

Requirement
Final Key Requirement:
20 m engagement accuracy in (x,y,z) at ~20 m (10 -6)

All individual tracking and engagement

components have been operated successfully.
All components necessary for a glint-only
hit-on-the-fly demo have been integrated
and are operational.

Current tabletop target engagement demo is

complete with one simulated driver beam
collimating
chamber
alignment
Poisson
microlens
focusing
crossing
verification
C1
C3
C2
drop
retroreflector
coincidence
Poisson
pulsed
fast
fringe
wedged
(632
mirror
glint
& nm) &
laser
driver
steering
tower
sensors
dichroic
center
camera
counter
array
fringe
lens
spot
sensor
(1064
beam
mirror
counting
nm)
mirror
(1540
(635
camera
nm)
nm) beams

Glint laser
now in
operation

Poisson & fringe

counting systems not
used in glint-only demo

Hit-on-the-fly experiment has

demonstrated engagement on moving target
1) Update time of Poisson spot centroiding algorithm down from
10 ms to 3.5 ms in software.
2) Fringes off falling target counted over 3 mm.
3) Using crossing sensors, the timing & triggering system
triggers all necessary lasers/components on-the-fly.
4) Engaged moving targets with a simulated driver beam by using
the glint return signal to steer a fast steering mirror.
5) Verification system has been used to measure error in target
engagement.
150 m range
6 m resolution

A range of tracking/engagement scenarios

call for different requirements
Example #2: in-flight, presteering corrections by
Poisson, fringe counter

Example #1: no in-chamber

gas, glint provides final
mirror steering

Sub system
Target Injector (prob.
TBD)
Poisson spot
centroiding
position)

Example #1
Ultra-FSM

Example #2
FSM

Achieved
(1)

1 mm

5 mm

4 mm

N/A

100 m, 5
ms update
time

5 m,
3.5 ms

(x,y

Fringe counting (z
position)
Crossing sensors (zero
crossing, velocity
prediction)
Glint/coincidence
sensor
FSM pointing precision

N/A

100 m

0.7 s,

10 s,

5 m over
5 mm
45 m

70 m

mm

10 m

10 m

10 m

5 m, ~2
ms

5 m, ~2
ms

6 m, 2
s

#1 Transverse Target
Tracking Using Poisson Spot
Centroid
fringe
spot counting
(1540
camera
nm) beams

Reduced region of interest (ROI)

technique further improves update time
Update time reduced from 10 ms to 3.5 ms by
implementing a dynamic ROI in software.
Number of pixels to process is reduced from 307k to
10k.
The smaller ROI assumes the
target will not move more
than a few pixels between
frames.

4Poisson
6
mm
reduced
CMOSspot
region
sensorof
interest

30x less
pixels

ROI is recalculated each

frame to follow the Poisson
spot centroid.
4mm sphere on
translation
stage

New centroiding algorithm implements

dynamic ROI

1) Capture image

2)

Brightness & contrast adj.

3) Threshold pixels above a certain

value

7) Pixels outside ROI

excluded

5) Particles filter, centroid

computed

6) Dynamic ROI drawn

4) Remove border objects

8) Subsequent frames contain reduced

number of pixels

Target position update

time: 3.5 ms (5 m 1 )

Closing in on goal of 1-2 ms

#2 Axial Target Tracking

Using Interferometic Fringe
Counting
Poisson
reference
fringe(632 nm) &
counter
fringe
leg counting
(1540 nm) beams

Fringe counting has been demonstrated over

3 mm
IR
Doppler
stationary
photo
telecom
diode
reflection
fringe
reference
laser
counter
leg

Lower-noise photo-detector

Similar intensities

Higher-power laser (60 mW)

=> Fringes off falling target counted over
3 mm
Target releasing from
vacuum needle

Free-falling target

Mini drop tower setup

5 ms/div

5 V/div
time
Signal processing
required to obtain
countable signal

20 s/div

#3 Crossing Sensors &

Axial Position
Prediction
crossing
C1
C3
C2
drop
tower
sensors

Crossing sensors & real-time operating

system compute predicted target
location
on-the-fly
Last time: Established crossing sensors to be sufficiently
precise (45 m 1) to trigger glint laser.
C1

Timing and triggering system

fully operational for our demo

C2

Overview of Timing Sequence:

Timing sequence initiated by target crossing C1.
C2 crossing yields target velocity.
Velocity info used to trigger alignment beam, glint laser,
verification camera, and driver beam.

Glint
Driver

Disparity between predicted and actual target location

is detected by PSD and corrected by steering mirror

#4 Glint System
collimating
alignment
microlens
focusing
retroreflector
coincidence
pulsed
fast
wedged
mirror
glint
&
laser
driver
steering
dichroic
array
lens
sensor
(1064
beam
mirror
nm)
mirror
(635 nm)

All necessary components have been

integrated for glint-only target
engagement demo Glint laser final component
of hit-on-the-fly
demo has been
installed

collimating
alignment
microlens
focusing
retroreflector
coincidence
pulsed
fast
wedged
mirror
glint
&
laser
driver
steering
dichroic
array
lens
sensor
(1064
beam
mirror
nm)
mirror
(635 nm)

Pulsed diode laser

(simulated driver)

New Wave 35 mJ, 1064 nm glint

laser

Simulated wedged
dichroic mirror

Optics In Motion fast

steering mirror

Wedged dichroic mirror compensates for

glint/chamber center offset
1 cm

target at
glint
location

Co-axial glint
return and driver

simu
late
d

target at
chamber
center

Verificati
on camera

gl
in
t

be
am

driv
er

beam

Simulated wedged
dichroic mirror

We have engaged moving targets with a

simulated driver beam
Last time we used a simulated glint return
from a stationary target to steer a mirror.
Now, we have used the real glint return
signal from a moving target (5 m/s) to steer
a simulated driver beam to engage the target.
150 m diam. verification beamlets

Targets fully
engaged ~20% of
the time (in
150 m
verification
range)

20%
40%
outside range

40%
outside range

150 m
verification
range

Snapshots of engaged targets

But does not meet the

20 m spec yet

Effort to improve engagement accuracy to 20

m must address & minimize all uncertainties
PSD signal with ground-looping

Errors & uncertainties from every

subsystem contribute to engagement
accuracy.
We are working to understand errors
and to address each one.
Air fluctuations, sensor noise,
bandwidth limitations, response times

Error contributions to engagement

accuracy:
-Reading glint return
(PSD, LabView)
~100s m
-Air fluctuations
~20 m
-Verification camera ~12 m
-Mirror pointing
~6 m

Erratic 50 mV signal translates

to significant mirror steering!
(100s microns)

Resolved by plugging all

electrical components into
same circuit

Most dominant uncertainty so far is

deciphering the glint return on PSD

Glint return is used to make one final

steering mirror correction depending
on
PSD
reading

Glint
return
on PSD gives targets final position.
LabView reads PSD signal, then calculates steering gain to give FSM.
LabView loop time is 50 20 s due to non-deterministic operating
system.
Steering signal to
FSM X-axis

100 s/div

Inconsistent voltage
readings grossly and
falsely steer the mirror.

Glint return on PSD X

2V/div
Glint return on PSD Y

Glint laser q-switch

Peak-hold circuit picks off PSD

voltage more consistently than
software

Peak-hold circuit holds the peak voltage until LabView can read

it.

Also researching other ways to read glint (photo-diode, quad-cell)

Rise time may also influence reading

consistency

=> More work must be

done on glint return
characterization,
PSD response,
error/noise
reduction.
Glint returns on PSD

Signal held by peak det.

(not mirror command)

50 s/div

2V/div

#5 Engagement Verification
for
Hit-on-the-fly Demo
collimating
chamber
alignment
microlens
verification&
driver
center
camera
array
lensbeam
(635 nm)

Applet post-processes snapshot to

verify target engagement accuracy
target
beamlets

PSD

Applet computes light centroid of

obscured and un-obscured beamlets.
imaginary target shadow

No target

Resolution of 6 m, 150 m range

Target equally eclipsing beamlets

Target offset to the right ~ 100 m

Summary of progress & plans

#1 Moving target engaged by simulated driver beam
#2 Transverse Tracking System Using Poisson Spot:
Progress: Improved update time to 3.5 ms using dynamic ROI
Plans: Implement into system to help pre-steer mirror
#3 Axial Tracking & Triggering Prediction:
Progress: Faithfully triggering glint, simulated driver beam &
verification camera.
Also, fringes off moving target
counted over 3 mm
#4 Glint System:
Progress: Glinted target & steered FSM to engage in-flight target
Plans: Better characterize glint return & PSD response to meet 20
m goal
#5 Target Engagement Verification:
Progress: Engagement verification resolution of 6 m, 150 m range
Future Goals to Consider:
- increase speed capability to couple with a 50 m/s injector
- add more driver beamlines at different angles.