An airborne sensor is developed for remote sensing on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The sensor is an optical payload for an eletro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) dual band camera that combines visible and IR imaging capabilities in a compact and lightweight manner. It adopts a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope for the common front end optics with several relay optics that divide and deliver EO and IR bands to a charge-coupled-device (CCD) and an IR detector, respectively. For the easy assemble of such a complicated optics, a computer-aided alignment program (herein called simulator) is developed. The simulator first estimates the details of the misalignments such as locations, types, and amounts from the test results such as modulation transfer function (MTF), Zernike polynomial coefficients, and RMS wavefront errors at different field positions. Then it recommends the compensator movement(s) with the estimated optical performance. The simulator is coded on Matlab with the hidden connection to optical analysis/design software Zemax. By interfacing ZEMAX and MATLAB, the GUI-based alignment simulator, will help even those not familiar with the two programs to obtain accurate results more easily and quickly.

Date Published: 15 October 2012
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 8417, 6th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Optical Test and Measurement Technology and Equipment, 84170E (15 October 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.2002562

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8417:
6th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Optical Test and Measurement Technology and Equipment
Yudong Zhang; Libin Xiang; Sandy To, Editor(s)