Development of Precision Optical Path Alignment System (POPAS).

摘要

A precision optical pointing and alignment system (POPAS) was develoepd and installed in the Stabilized Mirror Automatic-Tracker Laser-Designator (SMAL) to reduce vibration-induced line-of-sight errors. Tests of the POPAS hardware have shown that it reduced RMS errors from 57 microradians to 7 microradians - a factor of 8 to 1 under simulated helicopter vibration environments. The POPAS consists of a collimated pulsed light source, optical path, detector, and error compensating control system. A pulsed laser diode beam is projected over the laser optical path, and reflected by a dichroic final fixed mirror. The reflected beam is returned over the same optical path. A detector measures the deflection of the beam, which is proportional to mirror vibration error. The detector output generates corrective commands to the stabilized mirror to compensate for the measured errors. Detailed design data and supporting test results are presented for POPAS. (Author)