The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 12, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 11, 1995
John P Harrell, Mission Viejo, CA (US);
Bryce A Wheeler, Mammoth Lakes, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
An articulated optical system has a pair of actuators (42, 44) each of which pivot a head mirror (34) about respective parallel axes (E.sub.1, E.sub.2) to direct the line-of-sight of an optical beam through a window (36) of a vehicle (30) to an optical sensor (38). Of the actuators, a coarse actuator (42) pivots the mirror (34) through substantially the entire desired field of regard of the optical system, and a fine actuator (44) pivots the mirror (34) for fine adjustment, e.g., less than five degrees. The coarse actuator (42) is positioned so that the axis thereof (E.sub.1) is located as close as possible to an edge of the mirror (34), so that the radial distance therebetween is small; therefore, the size of the window (36) is minimized with respect to the diameter (d.sub.b) of the optical beam. The fine actuator (44) is attached to approximately the geometric center of the mirror (34), so that the mirror (34) is statically balanced about the elevation axis (E.sub.2) of the fine actuator (44); therefore, jitter and vibration are substantially eliminated.