Aero-wave instrument for the measurement of the optical wave-front disturbances in the airflow around airborne systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10057468-B2
Application number	US-201414501854-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

An aero-optical disturbance measurement system includes a mirror supported by a gimbal for receiving a light beam from a light emitting source, reflecting the light beam to a first periscope fold mirror and therefrom reflecting the light beam directly to a second periscope fold mirror. A first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror receives the light beam reflected from second periscope fold mirror and therefrom a first fold mirror receives the light beam reflected directly from first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror. A second fold mirror receives the light beam reflected directly from the first fold mirror. A second concave off-axis paraboloid mirror receives the light beam reflected directly from second fold mirror which reflects the light beam to a fast steering mirror. A fine tracker camera coupled to an embedded processer receives portion of light beam from fast steering mirror. Embedded processor controls movement of fast steering mirror and gimbal.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An aero-optical disturbance measurement system, comprising:
a mirror supported by a gimbal for receiving a light beam from a light emitting source and reflecting the light beam emitted from the light emitting source to a first periscope fold mirror;
a second periscope fold mirror positioned to receive the light beam reflected directly from the first periscope fold mirror;
a first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror positioned to receive the light beam reflected from the second periscope fold mirror;
a first fold mirror positioned to receive the light beam reflected directly from the first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror;
a second fold mirror positioned to receive the light beam reflected directly from the first fold mirror;
a second concave off-axis paraboloid mirror positioned to receive the light beam reflected directly from the second fold mirror and reflecting the light beam to a fast steering mirror; and
a fine tracker camera coupled to an embedded processer wherein:
the fine tracker camera receives a transmitted portion of the light beam from the fast steering mirror;
the embedded processor is coupled to the fast steering mirror such that the embedded processor controls movement of the fast steering mirror; and
the embedded processor is coupled to the gimbal and controls the movement of the mirror supported by the gimbal.

2. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 1 , further including a gyro sensor coupled to the mirror supported by the gimbal so as to sense mirror motion wherein the gyro sensor is coupled to communicate movement of the mirror supported by the gimbal to the embedded processor.

3. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 2 , wherein:
the mirror supported by the gimbal is positioned behind a window of an aircraft through which the light beam from the light emitting source passes; and
the window is positioned at different locations on the aircraft comprising at least one of a side nose barrel, a dorsal mid-body, a wing gun location, an electro-optical targeting system location, a conformal fairing, an upper nose barrel and a dorsal behind cockpit.

4. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the angle of incidence of the light beam with the first periscope fold mirror is approximately 45 degrees.

5. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 1 , further including a first intermediate mirror fold mirror positioned to receive the beam of light reflected directly from the second periscope fold mirror with an angle of incidence of approximately 45 degrees and reflects the beam directly to a second intermediate fold mirror which receives the beam of light at approximately 45 degrees of incidence.

6. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 5 , wherein the first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror receives the light beam directly reflected from the second intermediate fold mirror.

7. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system claim 6 , wherein a first fold mirror receives the beam of light reflected directly from the first concave off-axis paraboloid mirror and reflects the beam of light directly to a second fold mirror.

8. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 7 , wherein a second concave off-axis paraboloid mirror receives the light beam reflected directly from the second fold mirror.

9. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 1 , wherein the fast steering mirror operates with an angular stroke length within a range of +1.5 degrees and −1.5 degrees and angular resolution of <2 microradian commanded byte embedded processor with a control bandwidth of 100 Hz to 1000 Hz.

10. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 1 , further including a beam splitter which receives the light beam reflected directly from the fast steering mirror wherein the beam splitter splits the light beam into the transmitted portion and a reflected portion.

11. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 10 , further including a first tracker fold mirror receiving the transmitted portion from the beam splitter and an achromatic lens receives the transmitted portion of the light beam directly from the first tracker fold mirror and transmits the transmitted portion to the second tracker fold mirror.

12. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 11 , wherein the fine tracker camera receives the transmitted portion reflected directly from the second tracker fold mirror.

13. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 12 , further including a filter wheel assembly positioned between the second tracker fold mirror and the fine tracker camera.

14. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 10 , further including a first wavefront sensor fold mirror receiving the reflected portion directly from the beam splitter and directly reflecting the reflected portion to an achromatic pupil relay.

15. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 14 , further including a wavefront sensor comprising a lenslet array positioned to receive the reflected portion directly from the achromatic pupil relay and focusing the reflected portion to a focal plane array camera.

16. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 15 , wherein the array comprises a set of lenslets of at least 16 by 16.

17. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 15 , wherein the array comprises a set of lenslets of 24 by 24.

18. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 15 , further including another embedded processor coupled to the wavefront sensor which collects data from the wavefront sensor and navigational data generated by an aircraft in which the disturbance measurement system containing the wavefront sensor is configured to conformally mount to the aircraft.

19. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 15 , wherein with the aero-optical disturbance measurement system configured to conformally mount to an aircraft moving at a supersonic speed on a flight path with the light beam received by the mirror supported by the gimbal in a field of regard for the mirror supported by the gimbal, the tracker camera receives the transmitted portion of the light beam and the wavefront sensor receives the reflected portion of the light beam.

20. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 19 , wherein with the aircraft moving away from the flight path, the light beam moves in the field of regard of the mirror supported by the gimbal and the embedded processor provides control commands to the gimbal to move the mirror supported by the gimbal and the wavefront sensor receives the reflected portion.

21. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 20 , wherein with the aircraft moving in a second flight path, the wavefront sensor receives the reflected portion.

22. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 21 , wherein with the aircraft moving to the flight path, the light beam moves within the field of regard for the mirror supported by the gimbal and the gyro sensor communicates that move to the embedded processor, and the embedded processor provides control commands to the gimbal to move the mirror supported by the gimbal and the wavefront sensor receives data from the reflected portion.

23. The aero-optical disturbance measurement system of claim 19 , wherein a gyro sensor coupled to the mirror supporte

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Kelchner Bryan Lee
• Jerkatis Kenneth
• Holmes Richard Brooks
• Mcnerney Nikolaus
• Donaldson Jed

Classifications

• G01J2009/002

  Wavefront phase distribution · CPC title

• G02B23/08

  Periscopes {(arrangements on floating structures of underwater viewing devices B63C11/49; arrangement of visual watch equipment on submarines B63G8/38)} · CPC title

• G01S3/786

  the desired condition being maintained automatically · CPC title

• G02B27/14

  operating by reflection only · CPC title

• G01S17/66

  Tracking systems using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves · CPC title