Environmental Stability Design of the Aerial Mapping Camera Based on Multi-Dimensional Compound Structure

• Main Authors: Pan, J. (Author), Yang, H. (Author), Yuan, G. (Author), Zhou, D. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2023
• Subjects: aerial mapping camera; Aerial mapping camera; Antennas; Cameras; Compound structures; Environmental stability; environmental stability technology; Environmental stability technology; Environmental technology; Flight simulators; Image enhancement; Image resolution; Mapping; Mapping camera; Multi dimensional; multi-dimensional compound structure; Multi-dimensional compound structure; Optical systems; Quality control; Radial temperature; Stability design; Thermal control
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus
• ISBN: 14248220 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.3390/s23094421

Environmental stability technology plays an important role in improving the adaptive range, image resolution and ensuring the stability of geometric parameters of aerial mapping camera. Traditional environmental stability methods directly implement active and passive thermal design to optical systems, which is easy to lead to radial temperature difference of optical components, and cannot eliminate the influence of pressure change. To solve the above problem, a method of environment stability design based on multi-dimensional structure is proposed. Firstly, the aerial mapping camera is designed as imaging system component (core) and sealing cylinder (periphery), and a sealed air insulation sandwich is formed between the two parts to realize the sealing design. A thermal interface is reserved outside the seal to avoid the radial thermal stress caused by direct heating of the optical parts, and a multi-dimensional Environmental stability structure is formed. Secondly, the core and the external thermal environment of aerial mapping camera in complex aviation environment are modeled and theoretically analyzed. Finally, the effectiveness and stability of the multi-dimensional structure method is verified by the thermal simulation and the flight. The results show that the thermal control power is 240 W, the thermal gradient of the optical system is less than 5 °C, the radial temperature difference is less than 0.5 °C. High quality image and ground measurement accuracy are obtained. Compared with tradition thermal control methods, the proposed method has the advantages of accuracy and low power consumption, which can effectively reduce the power consumption and difficulty of the thermal control. © 2023 by the authors.