Abstract: A piezoelectric fuse, and safe and arm mechanism for a small active projectile is disclosed including a piezoelectric element mounted within the projectile near the leading end thereof with an impact deformable electrically conductive shell spaced from and at least partially surrounding the piezoelectric element and a resilient material substantially filling the space between the piezoelectric element and the shell. Electrical leads connect the detonator to the shell and to a rearward piezoelectric element contact so that upon projectile impact, the shell deforms compressing the piezoelectric element generating a voltage thereacross, and thereafter, the shell makes electrical connection with a piezoelectric element forward contact actuating the detonator. The safe and arm mechanism includes an interrupter located in a "safe" position between the detonator and a lead charge.

Abstract: An electronically controllable pneumatically powered valve actuating mechanism for use in an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The engine is of the type having engine intake and exhaust valves with elongated valve stems. The actuator has a power piston reciprocable along an axis and adapted to be coupled to an engine valve and a pneumatic arrangement for moving the piston. A pneumatic damping arrangement imparts a first decelerating force to the piston when the engine valve reaches a first separation from one of said valve-open and valve-closed positions to begin reducing engine valve velocity as the engine valve approaches said one position, and imparts a second lesser decelerating force to the piston when the engine valve reaches a second lesser separation from that one position.

Abstract: A pneumatically powered valve actuator is disclosed including a valve actuator housing, a main piston reciprocable within the housing along an axis and a pair of auxiliary pistons fixed to and movable with the main piston. The main piston has a pair of oppositely facing primary working surfaces. A pair of air control valves reciprocable along said axis relative to both the housing and the main piston between open and closed positions control air flow from a pressurized source causing the main piston and the pair of auxiliary pistons to move. Each auxiliary piston forms, in conjunction with a surface of the corresponding air control valve, a variable volume annular chamber. The variable volume chamber function during the early portion of piston movement to apply a reclosing force to the air control valve and during a latter portion of the piston movement to vent air compressed by the piston during damping. This venting of the residual air is in an axial rather than a radial direction.

Abstract: A fast acting valve actuator for actuating an intake or exhaust valve in an internal combustion engine of a type which is hydraulically powered and command triggered is disclosed and includes a cylinder with a power piston having a pair of opposed working surfaces or faces reciprocable within the cylinder along an axis between first and second extreme positions. A cylindrical control valve is located radially intermediate the reservoir and the cylinder, and is movable upon command to alternately supply high pressure fluid from a reservoir of high pressure hydraulic fluid to one face and then the other face of the power piston causing the piston to move from one extreme position to the other extreme position. The cylindrical control valve may be a shuttle valve which is reciprocable along the axis of the power piston between extreme positions with control valve motion along the axis in one direction being effective to supply high pressure fluid to move the piston in the opposite direction.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for use in a global positioning system (GPS), to obtain the benefit of L2 carrier signals and precise-code (P-code) signals transmitted from satellites in encrypted form. Received, encrypted P-code signals are correlated with a locally generated P-code sequence and the resulting signal is bandpass filtered and squared, to separate one satellite signal from the others, to recover the carrier signal and make accurate measurement of its phase and pseudorange, even though the received P-code sequence is encrypted. Because the squaring step is performed over a narrower bandwidth than the original P-code, there is less degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal, as compared with squaring over the entire P-code bandwidth. Therefore, performance is more reliable under weak signal conditions or when there are interference signals present, and the improvement in signal quality means that cycle ambiguity of the carrier signals can be resolved more rapidly.

Abstract: Waveform inputs are sampled to provide vector inputs which are coupled to respective ones of a plurality of series connected time delay stages in a processing circuit. Each vector is weighted, or amplified, and time delayed by each stage between its input point and the circuit output. Each stage has switched capacitors and an operational amplifier. The delay of each stage is the period of the capacitor switching frequency. All of the components in the stages and vector input circuitry are solid state switches, capacitors or operational amplifiers and therefore are especially suitable for integration in a monolithic or film substrate. The circuit is particularly adapted to beam steering a plurality of waveform inputs from an array of hydrophones.

Abstract: A bistable electronically controlled pneumatically powered transducer for use, for example, as a valve mechanism actuator in an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The transducer has a piston which is coupled to an engine valve, for example. The pistion is powered by a pneumatic source and is held in each of its extreme positions by pneumatic pressure under the control of control valves which are in turn held in their closed positions by pressurized air and/or permanent magnet latching arrangements and are released therefrom to supply air to the piston to be pneumatically driven to the other extreme position by an electromagnetic neutralization of the permanent magnet field. A pair of auxiliary pistons movable with the piston compress air to a pressure above the pressure of the pneumatic source for aiding reclosure of the control valves as well as aiding maintenance of those control valves in their closed positions thereby reducing the size and cost of the latching permanent magnets.

Abstract: Shock mounting and enhanced conductive cooling of electrical components on printed circuit cards are achieved by mounting the non-component surface of the circuit card to a cold plate with a viscous, heat conductive, electrically insulating material sandwiched between the cold plate and circuit card. The cold plate may be an aluminum plate with a thermally conductive, electrcially insulative anodized surface. Typically, the cold plate is attached to a chassis of electrical equipment, or to a similar heat sink.

Abstract: A technique for resolving whole-cycle ambiguity that is inherent in phase-angle measurements of signals received from multiple satellite-based transmitters in a global positioning system. The relative position of a secondary receiving antenna with respect to a reference antenna is approximately known or approximately initially determined and then measurements from a minimum number of satellites are used to determine an initial set of potential solutions to the relative position of the secondary antenna that fall within a region of uncertainty surrounding the approximate position. Redundant measurements are taken from one or more additional satellites and used to progressively reduce the number of potential solutions to close to one. Even if the number of potential solutions is not reduced to one true solution, the number can be further reduced by using additional measurements taken at different time intervals, at which different satellite geometries prevail.

Abstract: A method of storing in a memory digital data representing a topological network having a set of nodes (0-cells), segments (1-cells), and areas (2-cells) within concatenated 1-cells. For each 1-cell there are stored an associated first 0-cell and second 0-cell and also a thread pointer assigned to the 0-cells. The thread pointer of an 0-cell indicates the next-following 1-cell obtained by rotating the 1-cell in question in a predetermined direction of rotation around such 0-cell. For finding a 2-cell, use is made of a first 1-cell and the thread pointer associated with one of its 0-cells is followed after which, starting from the newly found 1-cell, each time the thread pointer of the opposite 0-cell is used until the first 1-cell is found again.

Abstract: A method is presented for path planning after changes in task space. In one embodiment, the method is applied to planning a path for a robot arm. The method identifies areas in the configuration space which are affected by the changes in task space. Cost waves can then be repropagated in these affected areas to allow for planning in N dimensions and using space variant metrics. The method is also adapted to use in the presence of phantom obstacles.

Abstract: A magnetic resonance spectrometer in which an analog-to-digital converter in the receiving branch converts the spin resonance signals, or a spin resonance signal transposed to a lower frequency range, into a digital signal, and in which a Fourier transformation circuit is located in a signal path subsequent to the analog-to-digital converter. The signal path between the analog-to-digital converter and the Fourier transformation circuit includes at least one combination of a digital filter and a sampling frequency reducing circuit. The output signal of the reducing circuit has sampling frequency which has been reduced by an integer factor with respect to its input signal and, the reduced sampling frequency is a non-integer factor lower than the frequency of the signal on the output of the digital filter.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for starting and accelerating a vehicle through a range of vehicle speeds during which the vehicle's internal combustion engine is operated in a plurality of different operating modes is disclosed. The engine may first be cranked in a compressionless mode preparatory to starting and then run in a second mode at a relatively low speed for a warm-up interval as a six-stroke cycle engine where each engine cylinder cycle includes an essentially adiabatic compression and expansion. The system may then convert to a third mode of operation as a four-stroke cycle engine during normal engine operation. Different operating modes are available during this normal engine operation. Under high demand conditions, the engine may be run as a conventional inefficient but effective throttled engine or converted to operate in a fourth mode as a two-stroke cycle engine.

Abstract: Copy machine has a paper storage magazine into which at least two paper sheet cassettes and decollation devices can be introduced which are associated with each paper sheet cassette and can be driven through individual driving motors so that a separate sheet can be fed arbitrarily from one of the driven cassettes into the office machine. The readjustment to a mode of operation with additional paper sheet cassettes can be carried out in a single manner by unskilled operators if the paper sheet cassettes (2,3,4) constitute with their associated decollation drives (5,6,7) a constructional unit, whose electrical motor terminals can be connected through connection plugs to control sleeves of the office machine (1).

Abstract: The invention relates to a memory device of the charge-coupled shift register type which is subdivided into four sections each of which has a storage capacity of, for example 208,800 bits and which can operate in different modes: parallel-in/parallel-out (as background video memory); 2.times.2 parallel-in, demultiplex/multiplex mode, for example for 100 Hz TV; scan mode; parallel-in-recirculation mode; "shortened" memory, for example for 525-line system, etcetera. Control is realized via a decoding and timing block in which a multi-bit control word is serially input and decoded. In a scan mode (for example, as a teletext memory), the memory sections are scanned one-by-one under the control of a separate scan register in which a scan bit (logic 1) is step-wise shifted until all sections have been read. Via a data output, the scan bit is transferred, for example to the scan register of a further memory device (via its serial data input) which is connected in series with the former memory device.

Abstract: A bistable electronically controlled pneumatically powered transducer for use, for example, as a valve mechanism actuator in an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The transducer has a piston which is coupled to an engine valve, for example. The piston is powered by a pneumatic source and is held in each of its extreme positions, and air control valves are held in their closed positions by pressurized air and/or permanent magnet latching arrangements and the control valves are released therefrom to supply air to the piston, and the piston is released therefrom to be pneumatically driven to the other extreme position by an electromagnetic neutralization of the permanent magnet field. The piston forms a part of the magnetic latching circuit and that magnetic circuit also includes a radially slotted ferromagnetic member to both complete the magnetic circuit and provide a good air communication path from a high pressure air inlet to the control valve.

Abstract: In an X-ray scanner, the driving motor (10) for the X-ray source (4) with the detector (5) is in the form of a linear motor, which is preferably provided with two magnet poles (15), between which a metal disk (9) is moveable. The metal disk is connected to a supporting ring (7) for the source and the detector.

Abstract: A variable attenuation device intended to be inserted between a transmitter circuit having a certain internal impedance and a load circuit; it composed of at least on parallel attenuation branch made up from a variable resistance component (in particular a p-i-n diode) and a bias circuit to vary the resistance of the component as a function of an attenuation control variable. The parallel attenuation branch has a limiting component which is connected in series with the variable resistance component and whose value ensures the matching of the internal impedance of the transmitter circuit.

Abstract: A method of and a system for, determining the nuclear magnetization distribution, where a plurality of sequences act on an examination zone in the presence of a uniform, steady magnetic field, each sequence comprising an r.f. pulse whereby, in conjunction with a magnetic gradient field, the nuclear magnetization in the zones situated on both sides of a layer to be examined is excited and possibly dephased. The r.f. peak power can be reduced by modulating a signal on a carrier whose frequency corresponds to the Larmor frequency in the center of the layer to be examined, the frequency of said signal varying in a range which corresponds to differences between said Larmor frequency and the Larmor frequencies in one of the zones.

Abstract: A device for measuring the speed of moving organs and blood flows, comprising an intercorrelation circuit (100) which supplies on the basis of two successive shifted echographic lines, 2I+1 correlation function values, and a multiplex/interpolation circuit (200) which supplies, on the basis of the correlation function values, an estimate of the speed and the value of the corresponding correlation peak. In accordance with the invention, the intercorrelation circuit (100) and multiplex/interpolation (200) circuit supply the estimate of the speed and the value of the correlation peak within each of N shift zones. On the other hand, the device also comprises a zero-crossing detector (300) which defines M segments which are limited by the values of the scanning depth for which the speed passes through zero in the set of N zones, a memory (400) storing the values P.sub.ij of the correlation peak corresponding to the i.sup.th zone (i=1, . . . , N) and the j.sup.th segment (j=1, . . .