MATHEMATICAL-MODEL TO SIMULATE AN OPTICAL CHANNEL CONTROLLING THE DIVERGENCE OF AN EMITTERS RADIATION

The ways in which an optical channel can be used to control the radiat ion divergence of a hot surface are investigated. The surface with the channel is a thermal beacon, which can be used for object tracking. A semiconical shape is used for this channel. The divergence is control led by optimizing the channel parameters with respect to the cone angl e 2 alpha and the radius ratio of the two channels' bases. This is to maximize the power radiation in a narrow range of directions about the surface's normal vector. In contrast to popular computer simulation m ethods such as Monte Carte, a mathematical model is used for this purp ose. The channel is mapped onto a two-dimensional space, and then the optimization is carried out. It is shown that for a range of 20 deg an d a radius ratio of 2, the optimized value for alpha is about 12 deg. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Optical instrumentation Engineers.