US 11,906,308 B2
Optical unit for a projective optical metrological system for determining quantities relative to the asset and/or position and communicating data
Fulvio Bresciani, Turin (IT); Valter Basso, Turin (IT); Ernesto Ciaramella, Pisa (IT); Giulio Cossu, Pisa (IT); and Mario Rannello, Pisa (IT)
Assigned to Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT); and Scuola Superiore Di Studi Universitari E Perfezionamento Sant'Anna, Pisa (IT)
Appl. No. 18/016,641
Filed by Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT); and Scuola Superiore Di Studi Universitari E Perfezionamento Sant' Anna, Pisa (IT)
PCT Filed Jul. 15, 2021, PCT No. PCT/IB2021/056411
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 17, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/013816, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 20, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 102020000017488 (IT), filed on Jul. 17, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0288206 A1, Sep. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. G01C 21/16 (2006.01); G01C 21/02 (2006.01); H04B 7/185 (2006.01)
CPC G01C 21/025 (2013.01) [G01C 21/1656 (2020.08); H04B 7/18519 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical unit for a projective optical metrological system (1), configured to receive a light signal (LS) coming from a light constellation (4) comprising a number of light sources (4A-4C), said optical unit (7; 107) comprising:
an optoelectronic image acquisition system (10; 110);
a first and a second optical circuit (OT1, OT2) configured to receive the light signal (LS) and to be traversed by a first and a second optical beam (R1,R2), respectively, the first and the second optical circuits (OT1, OT2) being further configured to direct, respectively, at least a first part (R1′) of the first optical beam (R1) and at least a first part (R2′) of the second optical beam (R2) on said optoelectronic image acquisition system (10; 110), so as to cause the simultaneous formation of two different images (I1, I2) of the constellation (4) in the optoelectronic image acquisition system (10; 110);
an electronic processing unit (40) coupled to the optoelectronic image acquisition system (10; 110) and configured to determine a number of quantities indicative of the position and/or attitude of the light constellation (4) with respect to the optical unit (7), based on said two images;
an optical receiver (30); and
a derivation optical circuit (16, 26) configured to optically couple the optical receiver (30) and at least one of the first and the second optical circuits (OT1, OT2), so that the optical receiver (30) receives an optical information signal (OIS), which is a function of at least one of the first and the second optical beams (R1, R2);
and wherein the optical receiver (30) is configured to demodulate digital data from the optical information signal (OIS).