Design and Development of a Ranging-Imaging Spectrometer

Abstract

The topic of the dissertation is the design and development of an imaging spectrometer that is capable of simultaneously measuring range. The instrument developed, called the Ranging-Imaging Spectrometer (RIS), is a marriage of two well-established technologies. The technologies are the Computed Tomographic Imaging Spectrometer (CTIS) and the Scannerless Range Imaging Laser Detection and Ranging instrument (SRI LADAR) developed at The University of Arizona and Sandia National Labs respectively. The instrument is the first of it kind with its ability to simultaneously detect passive reflectance spectra and active range detection on a single focal plane array without spatial scanning. This RIS has applications in military reconnaissance, mining, surveying, robotic vision, and autonomous vehicle navigation. The instrument has 77 x 77 pixels of spatial resolution, 61 spectral samples from 597 - 897 nm with Δλ = 5nm, and range resolution of 8.92 ± 1.23 cm. The topic of the dissertation is first motivated by discussing current technologies and their related drawbacks that provide reasons for developing the RIS. A basic review of imaging spectrometry, CTIS, and SRI LADAR are presented as foundations on which the instrument is constructed. Technical data is then presented including: the design of the CTIS components, the opto-mechanical design for mounting and mating the two systems together, the spectral and range calibration techniques, the analysis of the spectral and range resolutions and tests, and a section on range errors and correction techniques. A section detailing range noise suppression techniques using statistics is included along with future work.