Automatic Marking System for tank target

[amitdiat]

I am in the process of developing an automatic marking system for range practice by the tanks. I wish to utilize sensors to check the hits or misses on a 6ftX6ft target (in the shape of paper/cloth on square metal frame). The sensor should be capable of detecting rounds hitting the target at speeds upto 1800meters/sec. The signal/pulse so obtained would be processed to get the output on the computer. Any sharp brains out there, pl post suggestions.

 

[LURCH]

Q: Do the sensors need to be in the tank, or could they be part of the target, or mounted somewhere on the shooting range?

It seems like machine vision would be usefull here. A camera that stares at te target and looks for a change in its appearence (such as a hole in the target). This sort of thing is done in factories to make sure that finished parts don't have holes in them (or do have holes where they should), because it is fairly cheap and reliable.

 

[pantaz]

How about a grid using lamps and photo-detectors? Simply detect the break in the light beams on the X axis and the Y axis, and you have your location.
The maximum spacing between light beams must be less than the diameter of the projectile. Otherwise it may pass though without breaking a beam.

 

[berkeman]

For regular target shooting, there are paper target materials and construction available that make it easy to see where the bullet hole is. Basically the material is a laminate of black paper in front, with flourescent colored paper or other material in back. When the bullet pierces the laminate, the hole in the back layer is smaller (not sure why), and the hole appears as a flourescent ring around the hole.

I have some of these targets at home, but don't recall the brand. I googled a bit, and this is one example of the target type that I mean:

http://www.americantargets.com/product/45802

Have you considered this method? If you can make tank-size targets out of this type of material, you could just use traditional optical spotting. It's probably cheaper and more reliable than the LED detection technique, since you will be replacing blasted LED frames quite often, I would think...

 

[amitdiat]

Thanks for the advice. This suggestion seems to be workable.

 

[amitdiat]

How about a grid using lamps and photo-detectors? Simply detect the break in the light beams on the X axis and the Y axis, and you have your location.
The maximum spacing between light beams must be less than the diameter of the projectile. Otherwise it may pass though without breaking a beam.

Deat Pantaz,
This is a great idea but the problem is of the response time. The response time of the detection sys has to be around 5 microseconds as the speed of the projectile would be around 1600-1800 meters per second. I do not think that the photo detectors would give a fluctuation good enough to be picked up by a relay in such a short duaration of time. Anyways thank you for your opinion. This approach needs some more study.

 

[amitdiat]

Q: Do the sensors need to be in the tank, or could they be part of the target, or mounted somewhere on the shooting range?

It seems like machine vision would be usefull here. A camera that stares at te target and looks for a change in its appearence (such as a hole in the target). This sort of thing is done in factories to make sure that finished parts don't have holes in them (or do have holes where they should), because it is fairly cheap and reliable.

Dear Lurch,
The suggestion is certainly workable. Thaks a lot.

 

[pantaz]

Deat Pantaz,
This is a great idea but the problem is of the response time.

Off-the-shelf ballistic chronographs measure velocity with photo sensors, so it's simply a matter of using the right type.

Another option is commercially available:

System 86 Acoustic Target is a scoring system using an array of 16 microphones. It is designed for a proving ground environment with wireless communication between targets and operator station. Targets of 10 meters square are used routinely and up to 9 targets can be used at a single gun position. Connected to a Windows® computer via serial port and wireless modem.

http://www.oehler-research.com/is86at.html" [Broken]