Abstract: Systems and methods for locating the shooter of supersonic projectiles are described. The system uses at least five, preferably seven, spaced acoustic sensors. Sensor signals are detected for shockwaves and muzzle blast, wherein muzzle blast detection can be either incomplete coming from less than 4 sensor channels, or inconclusive due to lack of signal strength. Shooter range can be determined by an iterative computation and/or a genetic algorithm by minimizing a cost function that includes timing information from both shockwave and muzzle signal channels. Disambiguation is significantly improved over shockwave-only measurements.

Abstract: Shockwave-only solutions that estimate shooter position and shot trajectory are extremely sensitive to the quality and precision of the shock time-of-arrival (TOA) measurements as well as the accuracy to which relative sensor positions in space are known. Over the life of a long-deployed system, the sensor positions can shift and the performance of some sensors may degrade for various reasons. Such changes can degrade the performance of deployed shooter estimation systems. Disclosed are systems and methods that can be used to calibrate sensor positions based on shock and muzzle measurements processed from a series of shots fired from a known location and in a known direction, as well as an approach for dynamically adapting shock-only shooter estimation algorithms to compensate for sensor degradation and/or loss.

Abstract: Systems and methods for locating the shooter of supersonic projectiles based on shockwave-only measurements are described. Muzzle blast signals are neither sought nor required. The system uses at least five, preferably seven, acoustic sensors that are spaced apart at least 1 meter. The sensor signals are acquired with a time resolution in the order of microseconds and processed to find and disambiguate the shockwave arrival angle unit vector. Two different Time-Difference-Of-Arrival (TDOA) measurement techniques are described, with one technique using counters in each signal channel and the other technique using cross-correlation between signal channels. A genetic algorithm can be used to efficiently disambiguate the results.

Abstract: Described are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for optimizing solutions using local attractive and/or repulsive virtual forces. In one aspect, a first virtual force is defined that is associated with an attractive characteristic and has a weighting parameter. A second virtual force is defined that is associated with a repulsive characteristic and has a weighting parameter. A detected virtual force is received that includes the first virtual force, the second virtual force, or a combination thereof. At an element associated with receiving the detected virtual force, a path is selected from a plurality of available paths based on the detected virtual force.

Abstract: Systems and methods for locating the shooter of supersonic projectiles based on shockwave-only measurements are described. Muzzle blast signals are neither sought nor required. The system uses at least five, preferably seven, acoustic sensors that are spaced apart at least 1 meter. The sensor signals are acquired with a time resolution in the order of microseconds and processed to find and disambiguate the shockwave arrival angle unit vector. Two different Time-Difference-Of-Arrival (TDOA) measurement techniques are described, with one technique using counters in each signal channel and the other technique using cross-correlation between signal channels. A genetic algorithm can be used to efficiently disambiguate the results.

Abstract: Shockwave-only solutions that estimate shooter position and shot trajectory are extremely sensitive to the quality and precision of the shock time-of-arrival (TOA) measurements as well as the accuracy to which relative sensor positions in space are known. Over the life of a long-deployed system, the sensor positions can shift and the performance of some sensors may degrade for various reasons. Such changes can degrade the performance of deployed shooter estimation systems. Disclosed are systems and methods that can be used to calibrate sensor positions based on shock and muzzle measurements processed from a series of shots fired from a known location and in a known direction, as well as an approach for dynamically adapting shock-only shooter estimation algorithms to compensate for sensor degradation and/or loss.