This invention comprises the use of integral pulse frequency modulation (IPFM) reaction jet controllers for multi-axis precision tracking of moving objects with flexible spacecraft, and vibration suppression. Two sets of position, rate and accelertion command profiles for multi-axis tracking are disclosed: one for a payload initially facing the zenith and the commands based on a pitch-roll sequence; the other for a payload facing the nadir and the commands based on a roll-pitch sequence. The pro...

Apparatus suitable for tracking a road vehicle from an aerial platform uses a correlator (5) for processing data received from a thermal imager (1). The apparatus derives a binary template for use by the correlator (5), the template (13) being based on points of high curvature (12) in an object to be tracked. The invention shows a significant reduction in mistracking and drift compared with conventional correlation trackers under the conditions of high density of features similar in nature to th...

Inertial trackers have been successfully applied to a wide range of head mounted display (HMD) applications including virtual environment training, VR gaming and even fixed-base vehicle simulation, in which they have gained widespread acceptance due to their superior resolution and low latency. Until now, inertial trackers have not been used in applications which require tracking motion relative to a moving platform, such as motion-base simulators, virtual environment trainers deployed on board ...

A system used for determining and recording the location of a vehicle during the occurence of predetermined events. The vehicle is equipped with a sensor or sensors which respond to the occurrence of the predetermined events. The sensors are connected to a navigational system which receive positional information from a navigational transmitter. The navigational system then computes the positional information, such as latitude and longitude of the vehicle, and stores this information in a data co...

A tracking system is provided for tracking while determining the position of a point relative to a datum and includes a carriage (4) rotatably mounted on a frame (1) and which can rotate around a precision sphere (2). An interferometer (16) is mounted so as to rotate with the carriage (4), such that a mechanical center of rotation of the device and the measurement datum of the interferometer coincide at the same point.

A method and system for tracking and identifying food products as they are being processed is disclosed, wherein no tags or encodings are attached to the food products, and wherein there is no extraneous manipulation of the food products. The tracking system of the present invention utilizes sensor input from substantially any sensor capable of detecting a food product in some manner. That is, the tracking system uses binary detect/no detect inputs for determining whether a food product can be i...

A tracking system for maintaining an alignment between a reflector antenna and a source of electromagnetic radiation, includes a reflector for reflecting electromagnetic radiation generated from a electromagnetic radiation source, a receiver, and a rotary sub-reflector which is positioned in front of the reflector for deflecting the radiation reflected by the reflector to the receiver and for generating triggering signals for measuring the strength of signals of the reflected radiation, whereby ...

A method for automatic group tracking detects target formations and group tracks corresponding to each formation. Pseudo-observations are formed to represent missing observations in each track group. The pseudo-observations update the track states of undetected targets. Track validity estimates eliminate false tracks resulting from series of pseudo-observations. A group average velocity applied to each track in the group helps to maintain velocity stability. The operator has the option of suppre...

In a cursor tracking system (FIG. 11), a pointing device includes a plurality of force sensors (304), optionally integrated with a keyswitch on a computer keyboard. The force sensors detect lateral and vertical forces applied to the keycap (300) by a user (302) for cursor control. Raw force data is acquired by A/D apparatus (306) and transmitted (310,312) to a host processor. Driver level software in the host linearizes the raw force values (316, FIG. 12D) to compensate for anomolies and nonline...

Apparatus and method of tracking a wordline signal using a tracking circuit having a first detector biased between a first power supply voltage and a ground voltage, and a second detector biased between a second power supply voltage and the ground voltage. The first power supply voltage is greater than the second power supply voltage. The wordline signal is driven to the first power supply voltage.