Abstract: A small, reusable interceptor unmanned air vehicle (UAV), an avionics control system for the UAV, a design method for the UAV and a method for controlling the UAV, for interdiction of small scale air, water and ground threats. The UAV includes a high performance airframe with integrated weapon and avionics platforms. Design of the UAV first involves the selection of a suitable weapon, then the design of the interceptor airframe to achieve weapon aiming via airframe maneuvering. The UAV utilizes an avionics control system that is vehicle-centric and, as such, provides for a high degree of autonomous control of the UAV. A situational awareness processor has access to a suite of disparate sensors that provide data for intelligently (autonomously) carrying out various mission scenarios. A flight control processor operationally integrated with the situational awareness processor includes a pilot controller and an autopilot controller for flying and maneuvering the UAV.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an optical sensor of air borne acoustic waves. The sensor comprises means for producing mutually coherent optical sampling and reference beams, which may be combined to form an intermediate frequency carrier, the sampling beam being exposed to the acoustic field, in which acoustic wave induced density variations occur. These density variations produce a variation in the index of refraction and thereupon a phase modulation of the sampling beam. This phase modulation may be recovered by an optical detector and a phase detector as an electrical signal representative of the acoustic signal. The invention has application to security systems.

Abstract: A method for sensing acoustic energy as the energy passes from a more dense to a less dense medium while compensating for energy level loses that may have occurred along the acoustic path of the acoustic energy. The method may be used to replace a multi-sensor system for detecting acoustic energy. The method includes permitting the acoustic energy to progress from a first transmitting medium to a second transmitting medium, the first transmitting medium being more dense than the second transmitting medium and the first medium being contiguous with the second medium along a predetermined interface; disposing an optical sensor in the second medium so that at least a portion of the acoustic energy imposes a modulation proportional to the frequency components of the acoustic energy on a sampling light emitted by the optical sensor; and detecting at least a portion of the sampling light having modulation in response to the portion of the acoustic energy.

Abstract: The invention relates to holography and more particularly to an electronic holographic apparatus whose electrical output represents the magnitude and phase of coherent light reflected from a three-dimensional object and distributed over the aperture of the apparatus. The apparatus provides a coherent beam which illuminates the object to create a speckle pattern in an aperture bounding an optical sensing arrangement. A reference beam derived from the same source as the illuminating beam illuminates the sensing aperture directly and creates fringes in the speckle pattern. The optical sensing arrangement consists of a charge injection device (CID) camera with plural optical detectors arranged in relation to the speckle pattern to sense the magnitude and spatial phase of each speckle (on the average).