Photoelectric pod

1. Principle of photoelectric pod

To complete the task of detecting and tracking targets in the air, an aircraft needs an airborne platform and an integrated system composed of detection equipment on the platform, which is called a pod in the form of hardware.

According to the functions of the built-in equipment, the airborne pods can be divided into navigation pods, tracking and targeting pods, infrared measurement pods, electronic jamming pods and electronic intelligence pods. The precision-guided weapons on the aircraft mainly rely on the tracking and aiming pods on the aircraft to indicate targets. The photoelectric tracking and aiming pod is a photoelectric imaging tracking system, and its capture, tracking, and aiming (ATP) function is finally completed by the tracking servo system. This tracking servo system is mainly composed of three parts: photoelectric sensor system, signal processing and control system, and tracking stabilization system (image stabilization system).

UAV photoelectric pod is a kind of UAV pod, which is generally composed of visible light camera, infrared movement, signal processing unit, image compression unit, stable platform unit, etc. It has the functions of taking pictures and video, which can realize all-weather Tracking, camera, and monitoring of long-distance targets. There are many types of technologies used in the photoelectric pod of drones, and according to different functions, the types of technologies are also slightly different. There are three most commonly used and representative technologies: infrared thermal imaging technology, digital image processing technology, and dynamic target tracking. Technology.

2. Photoelectric pod gyro stabilization system

It mainly includes three parts:

(1) Main instrument: The main instrument of the image stabilization system is a gimbal structure supported by two axes. The inner ring (horizontal ring) is used to install photoelectric measuring instruments, and the outer ring (azimuth ring) is installed vertically on the base. The rotation axes of the two rings are orthogonal, and a two-degree-of-freedom flexible gyroscope is respectively installed on the two rings, and a rate gyroscope is formed through a locked loop to measure the angular velocity of the rotation of the two axes.

(2) Control amplifier: The control amplifier controls the rotation of the driving motors on the two rings according to the operating instructions and the amount of miss of the tracking target, so that the optical axis of the measuring instrument is always aligned with the target.

(3) Miss distance calculation unit: The miss distance calculation unit calculates the miss distance of the target according to the image measured by the photoelectric tracking instrument, and inputs it to the controller as the input of the system position loop.

3. Image processing technology

Target tracking based on image information, abbreviated as image tracking, is a new type of target recognition and tracking technology that is based on image processing technology and organically integrates computer technology, sensor technology, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and other theories and technologies. It relies on imaging technology to obtain richer target information, strong anti-jamming capabilities, and good all-weather combat capabilities. The relationship between the target and the real space information can be used to effectively reduce the maneuver estimation delay and improve the tracking performance. Therefore, this kind of direct maneuver estimation method based on image sensor and image processing has broad prospects for development. Image tracking can basically be divided into three methods: gate tracking, correlation tracking, and filter tracking based on the target motion model. Among them, the third tracking method is the most widely used and has the best effect.

UAV photoelectric pods are mainly used in the fields of forest fire protection, agriculture, environmental protection, emergency response, electric power inspection and other fields. Among them, electric power inspection, fire department (including fire protection and forest fire prevention), armed police and public security emergency rescue departments are the current needs The three largest areas. With the rapid development of the UAV market and the continuous expansion of UAV application fields, the market demand for UAV optoelectronic pods continues to grow. The industry still has a large room for development in the future, and its development prospects are promising. Chinese enterprises should cooperate with universities and research institutions to promote the technology research and development strategy of "production, study and research", provide technical support for enterprises, reduce technical input costs, and promote the improvement of the technical level of domestic drone photoelectric pods.