A Miniature, High-Fidelity Imaging Spectrometer

The role of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the military is growing rapidly and advances in technology are allowing the UAVs to become smaller, lighter, and carry more sophisticated sensors and instrumentation. While the use of hyperspectral imagers aboard UAVs has been shown to possess great potential for target acquisition and battlefield intelligence gathering, current hyperspectral systems are too large and heavy to be incorporated into the emerging generation of small, low-cost UAVs. This document proposes an innovative hyperspectral imager design that leverages the inherent asymmetry of push-broom hyperspectral imagers to decrease point-imaging aberrations associated with other miniature, large-aperture hyperspectral imager designs, resulting in higher spectral and spatial sensor fidelity than previously possible in very small systems. To verify the performance of the proposed system, detailed ray-trace modeling will be done and the performance of the new design will be compared to an optimized Offner design. Radiometric modeling of the system will be performed and mechanical drawings for a prototype instrument will be created. The anticipated result of this effort is a hyperspectral imager that is much smaller and lighter than current instruments yet maintains the performance characteristics of proven airborne hyperspectral imagers.