Automatic optical guiding system

Claim 1

GUIDANCE CONTROL APPARATUS RESPONSIVE TO RADIATION SIGNALS, COMPRISING A RADIATION SENSITIVE ELEMENT ADAPTED TO GENERATE ELECTRICAL SIGNALS FROM THE IMPINGING RADIATION SIGNALS REPRESENTATIVE OF A SELECTED TARGET SCENE IMAGE, FIXED AMPLITUDE CONCIAL SCANNING MEANS COMPRISING AN OFF-AXIS ROTATABLE OPTICAL SYSTEM AND AT LEAST ONE MODULATING MEMBER, SAID OFF-AXIS ROTATABLE OPTICAL SYSTEM BEING ADAPTED TO DIRECT SAID RADIATION SIGNALS THROUGH SAID MODULATING MEMBER TO IMPINGE UPON SAID RADIATION SENSITIVE ELEMENT, SAID MODULATING MEMBER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY OPAQUE TO SAID RADIATION SIGNALS AND CONTAINING AT LEAST ONE AREA TRANSPARENT TO SAID RADIATION SIGNALS, DRIVE MEANS COUPLED TO SAID CONCIAL SCANNING MEANS FOR NUTATING SAID RADIATION SIGNALS AT SAID MODULATING MEMBER AT A PREDETERMINED FREQUENCY TO GENERATE HARMONICS OF THE PREDETERMINED NUTATION FREQUENCY IN THE OUTPUT OF SAID RADIATION SENSITIVE ELEMENT WHEREIN THE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SELECTED ODD HARMONIC ARE RELATED TO THE RELATIVE ANGULAR POSITION OF SAID TARGET SCENE IMAGE AT SAID MODULATING MEMBER, AND ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT MEANS COMPRISING AN AMPLIFIER COUPLED TO THE OUTPUT OF SAID RADIATION SENSITIVE ELEMENT FOR AMPLIFYING THE OUTPUT THEREOF, A PARALLEL-T FILTER NETWORK FOR REJECTING SAID PREDETERMINED NUTATION FREQUENCY, PHASE-SENSITIVE DETECTOR CIRCUIT ADAPTED TO PASS A SELECTED ODD HARMONIC OF SAID PREDETERMINED NUTATION FREQUENCY, AND AVERAGING FILTER CIRCUIT FOR CONVERTING THE SELECTED ODD HARMONIC OUTPUT OF SAID PHASE-SENSITIVE DETECTOR CIRCUIT TO PROVIDE CONTROL SIGNALS WHOSE AMPLITUDE AND POLARITY ARE PROPORTIONAL TO THE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE OF SAID SELECTED ODD HARMONIC AND REPRESENTATIVE OF THE POSITION OF SAID TARGET SCENE RELATIVE TO SAID APPARATUS.