System for detecting and recording impacts produced by shock waves and projectiles on a target

Description [0001] The present invention relates to systems and equipment used in simulated combat and in training courses for military and police bodies.

Currently, in the aforementioned courses and combats, weapons are used that fire non-lethal projectiles that hit the target (usually the body of the participating people) without inflicting physical damage, but only "marking" the point of their impact with colored substances.

However, this way of proceeding manifests several drawbacks. In the first place, the use of the aforementioned colored substances entails the need to wash the targets and the surrounding objects after each single session of activity.

Secondly, sometimes the impact of a non-lethal projectile is so limited that it does not cause the dye to leak out, and the effects of the simulated combat cannot be detected correctly, as the person making up the target hit he may not always or want to acknowledge having been hit.

[0002] Thirdly, moreover, with the known systems and equipment the effects of the explosion of ordnance cannot be simulated, since it is unthinkable to realize one of them so that its explosion (which must in any case not involve dangerous effects for bystanders) causes the projection of a quantity of coloring substances that can simulate the effects. The inventor of the object of the present application has devised a system, of simple realization, adapted to avoid all the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[0003] He has in fact devised a system in which several sensors, distributed on the surface of each target, are able to detect the Impact produced by a non-lethal projectile of the type described above in the area on which they are applied, transmitting a signal to a transceiver device which in turn sends, via radio or cable, to a recording apparatus suitable for recording, storing them, the data sent to it by the aforementioned transceiver device.

Moreover, the system of the invention facilitates the performance of post-training sessions, in which it is possible to analyze the recorded data, also according to their temporal sequence, easily definable with known systems, and to give the participants instructions on the best tactics to follow, on how to avoid any mistakes made, etc.

[0004] This recording apparatus can comprise a receiving apparatus which receives and then communicates the aforementioned data, suitably transduced, to a normal computer equipped with a program which allows it to be recorded, memorized and displayed on an image representing a target as well as the areas of it on which a simulated impact or shock wave has acted.

The said sensors, which can be of the piezoelectric type, generate in this case, when they are struck, differences of potential easily transmissible to the said transceiver device.

The object of the present invention is therefore constituted by a system for detecting and recording impacts produced by shock waves and / or non-lethal projectiles as described in the attached claim 1.

[0005] A more detailed description will now be made of a preferred embodiment of the system of the invention, also referring to the attached figure, which represents a schematic overall view. In the drawing it can be seen how, in a system 1 according to the invention, the target consists of a jacket 2 on the surface of which are distributed several piezoelectric sensors 3i, connected to a transceiver device 4 (also applied to the jacket and preferably inside it) so as to transmit to it (arrow A) the voltage waves that are generated in them due to an impact.

In order to cover the entire target 2 with the action of the sensors 3i, the inventor has provided, as shown in the drawing, to apply them on rigid plates 13i, also of simple plexiglas, able to transmit to the sensors 3i the vibrations produced by the impact of a non-lethal bullet in the areas they occupy. As said, when an impact occurs on one of said plates 13i, the corresponding sensor 3i sends voltage signals to the transceiver device which transmits them in the form of radio waves (arrows B) to a recording apparatus 5, also arranged in remote position with respect to the place where the simulated combat takes place or the training course.

[0006] The recording apparatus 5, whose part which acts as a receiver receives said radio signals from the transceiver device 4, transfers them, suitably transduced, to a computer, which records the received data, stores them, and displays them on of a screen on which the jacket 2 on which the impact occurred is reproduced.

It is thus possible, at the end of each operational session, to have a clear and unambiguous image of the effects produced on the various participants during the simulated combat that was performed.

[0007] The system 1 of the invention can also lend itself to other types of use, offering an advantageous versatility of use.

For example, when the simulated combat is performed with weapons, for example an electrically operated rifle 7, the components of the system can be arranged so that the impact of a projectile on one or more sensors also has the effect of deactivating the rifle itself, simulating the effects of the physical elimination of the person affected.

This deactivation can be performed, again by means of radio waves, indicated with the arrows Ci, C₂, from the transceiver device 4 and / or from the recording equipment 5.

[0008] Another possibility offered by the system of the invention consists, as already mentioned, in being able to simulate the effects of the explosion of a bomb such as a mine, a grenade, etc.

CH 697 477 B1

To achieve this it is enough to include in the system of the invention one or more transmitters 6, which can be distributed in the area of ​​the simulated combat, buried, launched, etc., which when put into operation, emit a signal, detectable by the said transceiver device 4 , which in its scope and intensity simulates the effects produced by the explosion of the explosive devices they replace.

When the shock wave simulated for example by a train of radio waves reach the said transceiver device (arrows U) this retransmits a signal to the recording equipment 5, which records and stores data that correspond to the effects of an explosion that has struck the person wearing the jacket 2 hit by the simulated shock wave.

In the described case the target 2, being a jacket worn by a participant, is of the movable type, and its transceiver apparatus 4 communicates with the recording apparatus 5, as mentioned, via radio. In the case where the target is fixed, such communication can also take place via cable, by means of conducting wires, etc.

As regards the type of the physical and electronic components to be used to obtain the aforementioned operation of the system of the invention, the inventor does not consider it necessary to provide particular indications, since all the technicians skilled in the relative branches can choose without problems in the wide range offered by the market for similar or similar applications.