The Office of Naval Research needed a method for real time mapping of medium size wave structure from a dock unattended
over a period of several hours.
Solution:
QUEST developed and delivered a system that will continuously collect 3-D snapshots of a 1 to 1.5 meter square area.
The system collects 3-D images at a 10 Hz rate with an image size of 64 x 128 pixels.A laser scanner is used to provide a high-resolution raster scan of the surface.Light reflected from capillary waves on the surface provides the scattering mechanism to return light to four position
sensitive detectors imaging the 1.5 meter square sensing area.The use of 4 detectors
eliminates shadowing (for scanning objects) and increases the probability of light scattering from the capillary waves on
the surface.The adjacent figure is a view looking up to the scanner showing
the 4 detectors and laser polygon in the center.The second view is a laser raster
scan of a small mask.This photo was taken near the output of the polygon so
the raster scan only covers a small area.The system can be mounted on a tower
or dock looking down on the water surface.A fiber optic network cable is used
to connect the scanner located at the dock to a remote control computer.
