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Title: Performance analysis of bullet trajectory estimation: Approach, simulation, and experiments

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10121810· OSTI ID:10121810

This paper describes an approach to estimate a bullet`s trajectory from a time sequence of angles-only observations from a high-speed camera, and analyzes its performance. The technique is based on fitting a ballistic model of a bullet in flight along with unknown source location parameters to a time series of angular observations. The theory is developed to precisely reconstruct, from firing range geometry, the actual bullet trajectory as it appeared on the focal plane array and in real space. A metric for measuring the effective trajectory track error is also presented. Detailed Monte-Carlo simulations assuming different bullet ranges, shot-angles, camera frame rates, and angular noise show that angular track error can be as small as 100 {mu}rad for a 2 mrad/pixel sensor. It is also shown that if actual values of bullet ballistic parameters were available, the bullet s source location variables, and the angles of flight information could also be determined.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
10121810
Report Number(s):
UCRL-ID-119289; ON: DE95007949; TRN: 95:002374
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 8 Nov 1994
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English