Abstract
The aerial camera lens largely determines the performance of the camera. It is necessary to further optimize the lens to satisfy the requirements of small-scale and lightweight aircraft camera systems. The optical system design is the primary prerequisite. Therefore, considering the image quality and working environment of the aerial camera, an aspherical aerial camera optical system is developed by studying the aerial camera optical system. The work presented in this paper decreases the overall weight of the aerial camera by using an aspherical lens instead of a spherical lens, which reduces the number of lenses and improves the image quality. The athermalization of the optical system ensures that the camera has good temperature adaptability in the temperature range of −60 °C∼60 °C. The definition of the aspherical surface shape is detected by a ZYGO digital interferometer. The root mean square (RMS) of the system is 0.0403λ(λ = 632 nm), and the peak value (PV) is 0.354λ, which ensures the image quality of the camera. The research results verify that the aspherical lens can be well applied to the camera optical system, improving the image quality of the system and reducing the weight of the camera.
Highlights
Aerial camera is an optical instrument mounted on the plane that captures ground target information by photographing surface scenery
The athermalization design ensures that the camera has good temperature adaptability over a wide temperature range, which is conducive to miniaturization and lightweight design of the aerial camera
High-order aspherical lenses are increasingly used in modern aerial camera optical systems to improve overall system performance
Summary
Aerial camera is an optical instrument mounted on the plane that captures ground target information by photographing surface scenery. Designers have used methods to improve the optical performance and image quality of various optical systems to meet the needs of society [6]–[8]. The use of aspherical lenses makes the design of optical systems more complex and diverse. With the continuous advancement of aspherical surface processing and inspection technology, the manufacturing cost of aspherical lenses is reduced and the precision is improved. The development of aspherical manufacturing technology makes aspherical applications in aerial cameras possible. An aspherical lens is applied to the optical system of an aerial camera to decrease the number of lenses and cut down the overall weight of the aerial camera. The initial structure of the aerial camera optical system is optimized and the image quality is further improved.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
