A laser tracking processor is provided for integrating measured
target-reflection signals used in directional control. The integration is
performed to distinguish pulses reflected from the target against a noise
background. The processor includes an optical detector, an accumulator, a
correlator, a phase-lock loop and an integrator array. The optical
detector receives the measured signals distributed among several guidance
channels. The accumulator sums the measured signals as a combined signal
for all the channels. The correlator temporally identifies an event that
occurs to indicate a target-reflection pulse within the combined signal.
The phase-lock loop synchronizes the event with a clock reference to
produce a pulse window within which to search the combined signal for the
pulses. The integrator array superimposes the measured signals within the
pulse window for each channel to produce channel-specific integrated
pulse signals. The processor can further include a sum integrator, a
noise comparator and a reset trigger. The sum integrator superimposes a
temporal sequence of combined signals from the accumulator as sum
integration signals. The noise comparator determines whether the sum
integrated signals exceed a noise threshold to set a detection
satisfaction condition. The reset trigger initializes the temporal
sequence of the integrator array and the sum integrator in response to
the detection satisfaction condition, so that as the processor approaches
the target, the guidance system can receive updates from the measured
signals after becoming distinguishable above the noise.