Infrared laser automatic bore-sighting

摘要

Techniques are disclosed for automatically bore-sighting a laser-based optical device to a weapon or other apparatus to which the optical device may be mounted (or otherwise coupled). According to certain embodiments of the invention, a reflective element such as a retro-reflector can be located on a target, and the apparatus is sighted (or otherwise oriented) to the target. While the apparatus is thus sighted, a processing unit (or other control unit) of the laser-based optical device can manipulate a laser-steering assembly to scan the field of view of a camera of the laser-based optical device with a laser to determine where, in the field of view, the reflective element is located and how the laser-steering assembly is oriented. Hill-climbing and/or other peak-detection techniques can be used to make either or both of these determinations.

主权项

1. An optical device capable of automatically bore-sighting with another apparatus, the optical device comprising:
a mountable body configured to be mounted to the other apparatus, the mountable body at least partly housing:
a laser;a laser-steering assembly configured to automatically steer a laser beam generated by the laser; anda camera; and a processing unit communicatively coupled with the laser, the laser-steering assembly, and the camera, the processing unit configured to cause the optical device to:
perform a first scan of a field of view of the camera by using the laser-steering assembly to steer the laser beam across at least a first portion of the field of view of the camera;detect an intensity of reflected laser light above a first threshold;in response to detecting the intensity of the reflected laser light above the first threshold, determine:
a location, within the field of view of the camera, of the reflected laser light by performing a second scan of the field of view of the camera by using the laser-steering assembly to steer the laser beam across at least a second portion of the field of view of the camera, the second portion of the field of view being a subset of the first portion of the field of view; andan orientation of the laser-steering assembly at which the intensity of the reflected laser light reaches a second threshold; wherein determining either or both of the location of the reflected laser light or the orientation of the laser-steering assembly at which the intensity of the reflected laser light reaches the second threshold includes reducing a power of the laser.