Sensor payloads on airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms often require precision pointing of the sensor line-of-sight (LOS) during data collection. In addition, the LOS must be scanned to reduce the amount of scene drift caused by relative motion between the sensor platform and the target. An approach for LOS stabilization and back scanning is to send pointing commands to a fast steering mirror located within the optical train. One solution for improved stabilization performance is to generate the commands by blending low-frequency angular rate data from an inertial measurement unit with mid-to-high frequency data from magneto-hydrodynamic angular rate sensors. Ground testing performed with a unique test configuration measured up to 30 dB of disturbance rejection with this approach. Tests with random angular disturbances resulted in 3 μrad of residual LOS jitter during a representative image integration time. This jitter level is anticipated to meet the needs of a wide range of imaging systems.
展开▼
