Design of large field of view and high-resolution compound eye optical system

To address the problem of traditional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging systems being unable to achieve the coexistence of large field of view and high resolution, a large field of view and high-resolution UAV-borne compound eye camera system composed of a curved sub-eye array, an optical relay system and an image detector was designed. The non-spherical design was used for the relay system to reduce the system volume. Each sub-eye had a focal length of 20 mm and a field of view of 10°. The relay system used a fisheye lens with a focal length of 7 mm to convert the curved focal surface formed by the sub-eye array into a planar image. The overall system had a field of view of 122°×106°, an F-number of 3, and a focal length of 3 mm, achieving a ground resolution of 0.8 m at a flying height of 1 000 m. The simulation results show that the modulation transfer function (MTF) of each optical sub-channel is greater than 0.3 at 208 lp/mm, and the image quality of the system meets the requirements within the given tolerance range. Compared to existing UAV-borne compound eye systems, the proposed system offers a larger field of view, higher resolution and smaller size.