Visible and short-wave infrared star tracker objective designs for UAV navigation

Precise attitude determination is essential for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are commonly used for UAV attitude determination; however, they typically achieve arc-minute-level accuracy, and suffer from drift and noise. This paper presents the design and simulated evaluation of two optical systems operating in the visible and short-wave (SWIR) infrared spectral bands intended to achieve arc-second-level accuracy. All performance results are based on optical simulations in Zemax OpticStudio, with analytical parameter derivations performed in MATLAB. The visible and SWIR optical systems are designed with f-numbers of f/1.7 and f/4.9, respectively. The proposed optical system designs achieve near diffraction-limited performance with thermal stability and manufacturability, indicating their potential suitability for UAV star tracker applications.