Patent ID: 7798043

Claim:
A method for determining the relative weight of an incoming ballistic object with respect to a predefined weight value, the incoming ballistic object moving in a first ballistic trajectory and the method comprising: launching at least a second object of a known weight toward the incoming ballistic object, thereby resulting in the two objects colliding at a strike angle and producing a merged object traveling on a second ballistic trajectory that is deflected from the first ballistic trajectory of the ballistic object by a deflection angle; collecting pre-collision track data, the pre-collision track data comprising velocity vectors of the incoming ballistic object and the second object immediately prior to the ballistic object and the second object colliding; collecting post-collision track data, the post-collision track data comprising observed filtered velocity vector of the merged object after the collision between the incoming ballistic object and the second object; determining the deflection angle of the second ballistic trajectory of the merged object based on the pre-collision and post-collision track data; determining the strike angle based on the pre-collision track data; determining a threshold value for the deflection angle based on the strike angle and said predefined weight value; and determining the relative weight of the incoming ballistic object by comparing the deflection angle with the threshold value.