A wide-field and high-resolution lensless compound eye microsystem for real-time target motion perception

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)
• Computer Vision

Background:

• Traditional optical systems face a trade-off between field of view (FOV), resolution, and update rate.
• Artificial compound eyes offer potential for wide FOV and high update rates but are often limited by complexity and low resolution, primarily for imaging.
• Existing artificial compound eyes are not optimized for precise measurement tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a high-performance lensless compound eye microsystem for precise and fast orientation measurement.
• To overcome the limitations of existing artificial compound eyes in terms of resolution and measurement capabilities.
• To enable target motion perception through accurate orientation determination.

Main Methods:

• Developed a lensless compound eye microsystem utilizing multiple long-focal sub-eyes to capture a panoramic view.
• Implemented a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) aperture array for distinguishing targets from different sub-fields of view.
• Employed electronic rolling shutter technique for achieving a hyperframe update rate by analyzing time-shifted target spots.

Main Results:

• Achieved simultaneous wide-field and high-resolution optical measurement.
• Demonstrated orientation measurement accuracy of 0.0023° (x-direction) and 0.0028° (y-direction) within a 120° cone FOV.
• Obtained an update rate approximately 20 times higher than the standard frame rate.

Conclusions:

• The developed microsystem offers a promising approach for high-performance optical measurements, overcoming fundamental FOV-resolution-update rate limitations.
• The lensless compound eye design is simple, manufacturable, and suitable for precise measurement.
• Potential applications include vision-controlled navigation, high-dynamic target tracking, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations.