Design of a wide field of view infrared scene projector

In order to make the projected scene cover the seeker's field-of-view promptly the conventional projection optical systems used for hardware-in-the-loop simulation test usually depend on the 5 axes flight-motion-simulator. Those flight-motion-simulator tables are controlled via servomechanisms. The servomechanism needs many axis position transducers and many electromechanical devices. The structure and controlling procedure of the system are complicated. It is hard to avoid the mechanical motion and controlling errors absolutely. The target image jitter will be induced by the vibration of mechanical platform, and the frequency response is limited by the structural performance. To overcome these defects a new infrared image simulating projection system for hardware-in-the-loop simulation test is presented in this paper. The system in this paper consists of multiple lenses joined side by side on a sphere surface. Each single lens uses one IR image generator or resistor array etc. Every IR image generator displays special IR image controlled by the scene simulation computer. The scene computer distributes to every IR image generator the needed image. So the scene detected by the missile seeker is integrated and uninterrupted. The entrance pupil of the seeker lies in the centre of the sphere. Almost semi-sphere range scene can be achieved by the projection system, and the total field of view can be extended by increasing the number of the lenses. However, the luminance uniformity in the field-of-view will be influenced by the joint between the lenses. The method of controlling the luminance uniformity of field-of-view is studied in this paper. The needed luminous exitance of each resist array is analyzed. The experiment shows that the new method is applicable for the hardware-in-the-loop simulation test.