Abstract

A low-cost mechanical pointing and tracking platform that does not use gimbals and to which a sensor may be attached for use in searching an area for a target located at some unknown point. This is achieved with the use of a shaft, mounted intermediate its ends in a ball and socket joint and carrying at its forward end a platform for mounting a sensor. The other end of the shaft passes through a radial slot in a first rotatable member and extends into a spiral groove in a second rotatable member coaxial with the first. By manipulating the rotation of the two members, the sensor can be made to scan a circular, conical, spiral, linear or any other fixed or programmed complex pattern, can locate a target at any point in a two-dimensional field of view and can be made to track a target once it is detected.