US 12,238,698 B2
Pointing scheduler for a pointable device
Patrick D. Fitzgerald, Mont Vernon, NH (US); Zachary C. Long, Redmond, WA (US); and David P. Kelly, Nashua, NH (US)
Assigned to BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., Nashua, NH (US)
Filed by BAE SYSTEMS Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., Nashua, NH (US)
Filed on Mar. 29, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/707,361.
Prior Publication US 2023/0319809 A1, Oct. 5, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 72/121 (2023.01); H04W 72/0446 (2023.01)
CPC H04W 72/121 (2013.01) [H04W 72/0446 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system configured to direct a pointing device according to a pointing schedule, the system comprising a computing device configured to execute the steps of:
partitioning a plurality of targets among a plurality of groups, each of the groups including at least one of the targets, at least one of the groups including a plurality of the targets;
for each of the groups, assigning a group schedule to the group, said group schedule defining a series of pointing transitions between the targets included in the group, the group schedule thereby defining an order in which the targets of the group are to be included in the pointing schedule;
defining an initial pointing direction as an initial partial schedule (0), the initial pointing direction being also designated as terminal state (0), where (0) indicates that an index (n) is equal to zero; and
growing partial schedule (n) by:
A) incrementing n such that n=n+1;
B) appending to partial schedule (n−1) at least one of the groups that are not already included in partial schedule (n−1) so as to form partial schedule (n) having terminal state (n):
C) in response to partial schedule (n) meets applicable predetermined requirements, and if no predetermined terminating criterion is satisfied, repeating steps A) and B);
D) in response to partial schedule (n) does not meet the applicable predetermined requirements, pruning and regrowing partial schedule (n) by removing at least one of the previously appended groups from partial schedule (n) and replacing it with at least one other of the groups that are not included in partial schedule (n);
E) in response to the pruned and regrown partial schedule (n) meets the predetermined requirements, and when no terminating criterion is satisfied, then repeating steps A) through C), otherwise, repeating step D);
F) repeating steps A) through E) until n reaches a final value N for which at least one of the terminating criteria is satisfied, partial schedule (N) thereby being a full pointing schedule; and
causing the pointing device to execute the full pointing schedule.