Electro-optical systems to accurately align (boresight) laser designator,FLIR and CCD on the ground before the mission

摘要

CI Systems has been involved in the development and production of in-flight boresight equipment since 1989~(1,2), by pioneering the field with innovative laser-FLIR and laser-CCD alignment solutions. In addition, over the years we have developed a number of systems for use on the ground to align the various electro-optical instrumentation to a common Line of Sight (LOS) before the mission. This adjustment is very important for the success of the mission: the more accurate the alignment and its retention during the flight, the better the chance of a precise hit. In this paper we describe various systems developed and built at CI for use with EO pods mounted on aircraft, especially UAV's. The most important engineering tasks are design for optical alignment retention over a wide range of environmental conditions and convenient mechano-optical interfaces for different pods allowing system compactness and low weight, and easy operation. Some of the design considerations to meet these challenges will be given here.