Study of Fiber Optics to Enhance an Environmental Lighting Laboratory

摘要

This report documents the results of an investigation to determine how fiber optic materials can be utilized to substantially increase the simulation capabilities of an Environmental Lighting Laboratory. This Laboratory must provide the capability to dynamically simulate the ambient environmental illumination conditions encountered in day, night and high threat/high risk aircraft missions. Three cockpit lighting simulator concepts were studied. Two of these concepts utilized a spherical lighting enclosure with a visual scene being projected at the inner surface via a remote projection input surface; fiber optics carry the image from input surface to output surface. In one concept, the pilot views a back-projected image on a translucent spherical screen via a spherical output surface with imbedded fiber optics. In the other concept, the pilot views the spherical fiber optic output surface directly. Both concepts were considered possible to implement; each concept having appropriate cost vs. performance tradeoffs. No useful solution was found using the third concept, a fiber optic input to mirrored ellipsoidal enclosure. It was found that the spherical enclosure concept with an internal translucent projection screen offers the best combination of illumination level and resolution; however, the cost of implementing this concept is substantial.