Wide field of view remote laser position sensor
US4624563A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 5, 1983 |
| Grant date | Nov 25, 1986 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 5, 2003 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S3/783
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A laser position sensor system for viewing a wide field of view for detecting the angular position of a remote laser. A laser beam directed toward the sensor from any position within a 90 degree circular field-of-view can be detected to a positional accuracy of less than 0.1 degree in a two-axis coordinate system. The system utilizes two parallel sensors having field-of-view optics that compress the field-of-view. The compressed output from each optics is directed through a polarizer and filter to a phase shifter. The phase shifter, a pair of birefringent crystals, encodes the angle of incidence of the laser beam as a phase shift between the two components of the polarized input beam. These components, the e-ray and the o-ray travel different paths through the phase shifter. Subsequently, an analyzer such as a Wollaston prism decomposes the beam into two linear components. These components are condensed through a reimager lens and coupled to a pair of intensity detectors. The detector outputs from each sensor can then be combined to provide a normalized signal proportional to a trigonometric function of the angle of incidence of the laser beam, indicative of its position in space.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.