ACCURATE INFORMATIVE MOBILE TARGET
The Target to AIM for
AIM is a military grade portable target that provides the user with sufficient feedback to improve their skill level.
AIM is inspired by my 11 year career in the Danish army.
First as an Infantry tank driver, then later working in Military Intelligence.
During my tours in Afghanistan & Somalia I found the local soldiers to be dangerously under trained and their weapons to be extremely inaccurate.
This caused numerous injuries that could have easily been reduced with more access to training.
AIM can reduce this danger to civilians & soldiers.
It is designed to help professional soldiers, those that work in law enforcement even hobby enthusiasts be more proficient and safe when using fire arms.
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INCREASED SKILL INCREASED SAFETY
A Gap in the market
Current targets only detect the sound of a passing projectile.
AIM registers the impact itself providing accurate
real-time feedback.
Most western armies have mobile weaponry that is able to engage and destroy airborne combatants.
To make proper use of those weapons, the average user needs adequate training as well as frequently maintaining the skill levels of the user.
Many armies have facilities and equipment to enable this training. However, some armies have limited, expensive, inefficient or even no means to do that.
AIM can provide a solution for this gap in the market.
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
TOWED TARGETS
February 2018
Smaller multiple micro controllers on the towed target would distribute the points of failure even more.
They could be sent wired or wirelessly to the tower micro controller.
Towed target designs I am considering are kites & air dancers.
This project is about designing clusters of circuits like a spiders web that can be attached on any type of target. The cluster gives real-time feedback to the weapon user. This product would have to be either robust/redundant enough to handle multiple hits, cheap enough to manufacture so they are easily replaceable, or both.
EVOLUTION OF IDEAS
2 February 2018
An idea is to cover the target with a grid of wires.
Signals could be sent through the wires & with the help of multiplexing one could detect when a wire is severed.
Considerations:
After a wire is severed it cannot be reused making any subsequent hits less & less. reliable.
5 February 2018
After discovering some of my initial ideas such a air sleeves had already been done, I decided to improve on what already existed and focus on new concepts that could work with air drones such as Banshee & CARF.
March 2018
Exploring option to have wire grid that covers the whole target, with one micro controller.
Or multiple grids with small micro controllers.
RESEARCH TRIP TO DANISH BASE TO TEST LIVE TARGETS
2-8 March 2018
During the holiday's I arranged a research trip to stay at a secure Naval base in Denmark where they allowed me to work with the Army engineers and assist them to conduct tests on various modern weapons and targets.
This trip was invaluable to my research and understanding of my product.
It was here I started to focus on the gap in the market and how my idea could stand alone or be attached to existing solutions.
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DENMARK RESEARCH TRIP
Due to the high security nature of this military base photography was very limited, however what I learned here fundamentally changed my project.
It was after this trip that I decided not to create my own towable target which I'd already begun testing in the Infantry firing range the Summer before whilst training gunners.
I decided that AIM should instead be an easily portable field target that could be used as a stand alone product or attached to an existing solution, such as the CARF or the Banshee.
SENSOR & MICROPROSESSOR RESEARCH
15 March 2018
Piezo sensors produce an AC signal when they vibrate
They are less susceptible to external shockwaves than microphones.
FFT might be worth experimenting with, but is very demanding of MC
LORA module promises to send an RF signal several km
ESP8266 adafruit is currently being used
ESP32 is a beefier version of ESP32... will upgrade; ESP8266 vs ESP32
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1D & 2D TESTING
25 March 2018
1D testing. Narrow strips of MDF.
Tests the propagation of a shockwave to the two ends of the strip.
2D testing in the future.
A square sheet testing the propagation to all 4 corners.
CONSISTENT TESTING & SIMPLE ELECTRONICS
5 April 2018
Solenoid on a jig to consistently strike the narrow strips of MDF.
Image of solenoid and isometric & CAD solenoid holder.
Experimenting with different electronic components to modify the piezo signal.
Images of diode, ceramic capacitor, half and full rectifiers
The speed of the shockwave spread is closer to that of the speed of a shockwave in air than MDF.
Image of the difference between two spikes oscilloscope picture
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OP-AMPS SIGNAL PROCESSING
15 April 2018
Normal bridge rectifiers are reducing the signal amplitude too much.
Trying to use a generic schematic of a an op-amp based rectifier (take picture from logbook page 28).
Acquired an air pistol that can be used for testing in the future.
Learning about opamps and the options they bring to modify the signal instead
of digital processing only.
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FINALISING PROTOTYPE
25 April 2018
Tested, drew and put onto a strip-board an analog circuit that processes the signal. images of circuit diagram)
It includes signal biasing, amplification, and comparisons to voltage thresholds.
An OR gate finally outputs the result as a square wave that can be detected by the ESP32.
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FINAL ASSEMBLY AND TESTING
25 April 2018
Putting the target together and testing
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FUTURE WORK
So far, this journey has been a success.
Among future improvements are:
Improving the sensitivity for aluminium targets.
Speed up the processing to enable use of a Fast Fourier Transform.